9-4-09:

I haven't seen any of the Hawksbill turtles for a while. This doesn't mean that they haven't been present on the reef as it may be just a case of timing and being at the right location. I was told by a friend after being out for an hour that they had been watching Rocket Girl working through the coral for food. I went back out to get some shots.

She would look up at me when I made some noise in approaching her and then go back to searching in the coral and breaking off branches when she sensed food beyond her access. I swam into the shallows, grabed a piece of algae and returned. She looked up upon my approach, saw the algae and came for it.

A friend, Bob, got the shot below which is another angle of the shot above.

In viewing the shots Bob forwarded me, I recalled that Rocket Girl saw the algae and left the reef to come get it but as Bob approached on her right, she hesitated and looked at him before continuing on and going for the algae. She was clearly aware of her forage but not to the point of having tunnel vision. Below, you can see that she has averted her gaze to Bob:

I recall thinking that I was going to have to surface possibly before she actually took the offering but she quickly determined that Bob was no threat and returned to the algae:

I dove down a couple times after with nothing to offer and she would look up at me and then proceed to search in the coral. It seems that she is simply looking for food she wants to eat and any behavior doesn't go beyond that. She doesn't appear to seek hand outs but is not adverse to taking one if offered and one she identifies as forage she is accostomed to.

I hung around for a surfacing, took a couple pics and then left her.

It seems unfortunate that she doesn't feed in the shallows on the easily accessible algae and less time breaking into the coral for the black sponge. I have no idea if it is a question of nutrition, preference in taste or preference for feeding in deeper water where she is less likely to be visited by interested swimmers. On one hand, it may be illegal to feed the turtles by the letter of the law but there are also laws against any damage to the coral; damage she does by habit and need. If offering her forage she has established as food she wants reduces the number of times she breaks into the coral, is it a bad thing?