Green Sea Turtles

The green sea turtle is a large, shelled creature with flippers and a blunt head. They can be from 3.5 to 4 feet long, and weigh 300 to 400 pounds. Males are slightly larger than females. Their shells can be olive green, brown, or black, and their leathery skin is green (hence their name). Green sea turtles are graceful swimmers; their flippers can propel them through the water at up to 35 miles per hour.

Green sea turtles live in tropical ocean waters throughout the world, staying near coastlines and around islands. They spend most of their lives in warm, shallow water. They sometimes clamber onto land to sunbathe.

Green sea turtles have only two known predators: tiger sharks and humans. This is due to their large size and mobility. However, hatchlings and young sea turtles are extremely vulnerable to many beach predators, such as gulls and crabs, and make an easy meal for sharks and other carnivorous fish once at sea. In addition, artificial lights and disappearing beaches wreak havoc for hatchlings. Thus, very few baby turtles survive to reach adulthood.

Green sea turtles are thought to consume sea grasses and algae, along with crabs, crustaceans and other submerged vegetation. There is some confusion on their diet, as feeding is rarely observed in the wild.

Green sea turtles usually live for around 80 years, but are known to live for up to 150. Reproduction is a difficult process for green sea turtles, as females must travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to nesting beaches. Once there, they make sure to lay their eggs only at night. The females pull themselves onto the beach with their front flippers, and then dig a burrow in which they lay a clutch of about 100 eggs. After recovering the burrow with sand, the female slips back into the ocean and begins her return journey home. Once the green sea turtle eggs hatch, they make a group effort to dig out of their burrow. They stop digging if the sand feels warm, which usually indicates daylight.