Sea Turtle
Introductions
Hello, sea turtle friend! I’m Ro’shelle, a female green sea turtle.
We sea turtles are as ancient as the dinosaurs. Given all the time we’ve had to attune to our environment, it’s not all that surprising that many people find us charismatic and awe-inspiring. Others, unfortunately, see us as food or something to fear. If you’d like to sit back and get comfortable, I’d love to tell you about our lives so you can see how turtle-y awesome we are and hopefully join our camp of admirers.
Fast Facts
Where We Live
Tropical and subtropical seas throughout the world.
IUCN Status
- Most of us are threatened with extinction, primarily due to:
- Marine debris
- Commercial fishing gear can entangle and drown us.
- We ingest plastics and fishing gear.
- We consume tar balls that result from oil pollution.
- Nesting habitat issues resulting from:
- Coastal development, including light pollution.
- Climate change (as the oceans rise, it erodes our nesting area).
- Poaching us for our eggs, bodies, and shells.
- Marine debris
Celebrity Sea Turtle
Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium raised Yoshi for 18 years before releasing her in 2017. It took her three years and 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) to get back to her home waters in Western Australia, but she did it. Read her amazing story or watch a video.
World Sea Turtle Day is June 16!
Fun Fact
The temperature of our nest determines our gender. If we incubate below 81.86° F, the hatchlings will be male while temperatures above 88.8° F produce females. Because the temperature tended to fall between these two extremes, our clutches used to include a mixture of males and females. But with climate change heating things up, it is not uncommon for hatchling groups to now be 99% female.
Species of Sea Turtles
There are seven of us in the sea turtle superfamily. Here we are in descending order of shell size:
- Leatherback
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
- Find me in all the oceans except the Arctic and Antarctic. My primary nesting spots are in northern South America and west Africa.
- Recognize me by my black shell with white splotches. On average, I weigh 880 pounds (400 kilograms) and stretch 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters).
- 🏆 Awards: fastest swimming and deepest diving sea turtle, sole soft-shelled sea turtle, most widely distributed sea turtle
- Green Sea Turtle
- IUCN Status: We were recently upgraded from Endangered to Species of Least Concern
- Find me in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. My biggest nesting spot is in Costa Rica.
- Recognize me by my light or dark brown shell. On average, I weigh 350 pounds (160 kilograms) and measure 3 feet (1 meter).
- 🏆 Awards: largest hard-shelled sea turtle, sole vegetarian and land basking sea turtle
- Loggerhead
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
- Find me in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. I mostly nest in the Southeast United States and Oman.
- Recognize me by my reddish-brown shell. On average, I weigh 250 pounds (113 kilograms) and measure 3 feet (1 meter).
- 🏆 Awards: most mild-mannered sea turtle, most bedecked in barnacles
- Flatback Turtle
- IUCN Status: Unrated (more data needed), while Australia considers me vulnerable
- Find me in the tropical waters between Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
- Recognize me by my olive-gray shell with pale brown/yellow tones. I weigh 165 pounds (75 kilograms) and top out at 3 feet (1 meter) in length.
- 🏆 Awards: best perch for tired sea birds
- Hawksbill
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
- Find me among the coral reefs in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. I nest in Mexico, Seychelles, Indonesia, and Australia.
- Recognize me by my dark amber shell with radiating streaks of brown or black. I weigh 150 pounds (70 kilograms) and top out at just under 3 feet (1 meter).
- Awards: fastest nest builder, best at wedging into crevasses
- Olive Ridley
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
- Find me in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. My largest nesting sites are in India, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.
- Recognize me by my olive-green shell. I weigh 90 pounds (40 kilograms) and measure 2.5 feet (.75 meters).
- 🏆 Awards: most abundant sea turtle
- Kemp’s Ridley
- IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
- Find me in the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. I nest almost exclusively on a single beach in Mexico.
- Recognize me by my olive-green shell. I weigh 90 pounds (40 kilograms) and max out at 28 inches (.7 meters).
- 🏆 Awards: most endangered sea turtle, smallest sea turtle, and sole daytime nester
Sea Turtle Social Structure
We have a single, simple rule regarding our social interactions: avoid them and live your best independent life. Our sole interactions occur during the mating season. We do not form long-term pair bonds, nor do we provide parental care to our young.
Despite my preference for being alone, sometimes I run into other sea turtles in my underwater home. When that happens, if there is abundant food, I tolerate their presence. Otherwise, we may bite or chase each other in a bid to obtain the better foraging space.
Growing Up Sea Turtle
The Hatchling Frenzy
I started my life in Costa Rica’s Tortuguero National Park. After incubating for two months, I used my temporary egg tooth to break out of my shell. My movements excited my still-shelled siblings and within the next two days, 110 of us were hatched. We were each two inches (five centimeters) long and weighed .05 pounds (25 grams).
In one of the few joint ventures of our lives, we worked together to dig our way to the surface. It took us 2 days to move through more than two feet (.5 meters) of sand! As we closed in on our goal, we could feel how hot it was at the surface and waited underground for things to cool off. That night, shortly after dusk, those of us at the top began to stir. Our movements caused a chain reaction and soon we burst forth from our nest en masse.
As we reached the surface, we raced for the brightest spot on the horizon – the moon’s reflection on the water. Birds grabbed some of my siblings, but most of us made it to the surf. The first wave caught me and dragged me backwards. The next wave was bigger, and it lifted me into the ocean. I instinctively dove to the bottom and the undertow swept me ten yards (ten meters) into deeper water. I popped up for a quick breath and dove back down just before the next wave rolled over me. An hour later, I was half a mile (.8 kilometers) from the beach.
Please Don’t Light Up My Life
We sea turtles rely on the brightest spot on the horizon being the water. When there is artificial light, which could come from a commercial or residential complex or flashlights, it confuses us, and we may head towards it instead. This mistake can cost us our lives.
I maintained my frenzied pace for 24 straight hours, moving into deeper waters. I slowed my roll after that and by day three, I was swimming only a few hours a day and staying at the surface to conserve my energy. Mostly I rode the ocean current, tucking my front flippers flat against my back and concealing my tail with my rear flippers. This position also helps me to look a bit like a leaf to any predators flying overhead or just a bright spot of sunlight to predators swimming below me that just see my white belly.
I soon crossed paths with a mass of sargassum, which is brown seaweed that floats freely in the ocean current. I knew I’d found my new home, which provided both a place to hide and insulation from the cold water. The current occasionally brought miniature snails and jellyfish straight to me for a meal. And that was me for the next six years; I rode the currents, ate, and grew until I was the size of one of your dinner plates – about twelve inches (30 centimeters). By then I was big enough to deter most predators, so it was safe to migrate to shallow coastal waters.
Lifestyles of the Other Sea Turtles
While most of us spend our hatchling years in the open ocean, flatback sea turtles remain close to shore during this period of their lives.
Sooooo Juvenile
With my added girth, I officially graduated to juvenile sea turtle status. Along with my move to the coast, I traded in my seafood diet for a more vegan lifestyle, preferring to munch seagrass and other aquatic plants. I lived on the continental shelf off Nicaragua, enjoying the more abundant food I was able to find there. I continued to grow slowly for the next 15 years and eventually found a patch of sea grass to call home. I was extremely lucky to have reached adulthood as only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings survive this long.
Lifestyles of the Other Sea Turtles
While most of us spend our juvenile and adult years in coastal areas, olive ridley sea turtles prefer to remain in the open ocean.
Adulting, Sea Turtle Style
The Long Road Home
When I was 25 years old, I got an urge to return to the beach where I was born. I enjoyed some good meals to fatten up and then began my journey back to Costa Rica. It took me close to a month to swim the 200 miles (326 kilometers).
Lifestyles of the Other Sea Turtles
When we’re born, we imprint ourselves on the unique magnetic field of the beach where we hatched. As adults, both males and females regularly navigate back to that location for mating season using the Earth’s magnetic field. (Males make the trek annually, while we ladies go back every few years.) Leatherback turtles tend to travel the furthest, at an average of 7,450 miles (12,000 kilometers). We hard-shelled turtles migrate shorter distances, on average between 620-1860 miles (1,000 – 3,000 kilometers).
When I reached the waters off Tortuguero National Park, I found a gathering of sea turtles. Many of those who preceded me were males. While they waited for us ladies, they squabbled and bit each other.
Gender Reveal
Male and female sea turtles look nearly identical as juveniles. As adults, we remain very similar in size and appearance. The best way to distinguish us is that males have overlong tails and longer claws.
Almost immediately, I found myself surrounded by two males, both swimming circles around me. I kept them both in sight as they bit at my neck and flippers. Eventually I made a dash for the deeper waters to escape but was soon drawn back to the gathering area. This time, a single male found me. We played the mating game as he hitched himself to my shell and we swam together for the next several hours. Other males tried to dislodge him by biting him and trying to wedge themselves between us, but he managed to hold on. Over the next weeks, I played the mating game with other males too. (We all find multiple partners each season.) Some of them were less gentlemanly and bit my flippers, neck, and head while we were together. After a month, the frenzy began to fade as the boys left to return to their home foraging grounds.
The Seemingly Even Longer Journey to Nest
One night, conditions aligned for me to nest: it was dark outside, the winds were gentle, and the surf was mild. As I exited the water, I was shellshocked to suddenly experience gravity and friction for the first time in 25 years. I used my flippers to push myself on the land but had to stop to take some deep breaths every few minutes. Then I’d lift my head to get my bearings and continue on my way. After 30 minutes of slow progression, I reached my chosen spot. It was 100 feet (30 meters) above the high tide line and 10 feet (3 meters) from the trees bordering the beach.
I started my nest by cleaning away the debris and digging a pit for my body. Next, I used my rear flippers to dig a deeper hole for my eggs. When it was 30 inches (80 centimeters) deep, I could no longer reach any sand, and it was time to drop my eggs. I pushed with my whole body and quickly fell into a nesting trance. Several groups of two to four eggs released each minute until I had laid 110 eggs, each the size of a ping pong ball. To finish my nest, I covered it with sand, packed it down, and then camouflaged the spot. Then it was time to head back to the ocean. I sought the brightest spot on the horizon to orient myself and returned to the sea three hours after I left it.
I spent the next two weeks recovering from my nesting expedition, and then I hauled myself ashore again to lay my next clutch of eggs. I laid the third and final group two weeks after that. Because there were no nearby feeding grounds, I had been fasting since I left my home. By the time I returned, I had lost 30% of my body weight. I took the next three years to replenish my energy before venturing back to my home beach again. I now make this journey every two to three years. Since we tend to live 45 to 60 years, I know there are still many adventures waiting for me—scattered between the quieter rhythms of my everyday life.
Arribada! Arribada!
While most of us nest independently, both Kemp’s ridleys and olive ridleys take a more social approach in an event known as an “arribada”. During an arribada, thousands of female ridleys come ashore at the same time to nest in a tightly packed, synchronized wave. Shoulder to shoulder, they fill the beach – Kemp’s ridleys typically nesting during the day and olive ridleys at night.
Because of the dense crowding, some turtles may accidentally crush or dig up the nests of others. Still, this mass nesting offers a survival advantage: about two months later, the hatchlings emerge all at once, overwhelming predators as they dash to the sea—strength in numbers giving them a better chance at survival
A Typical Day for Me as an Adult
Good Morning, Good Morning
I awake on my favorite crevice and start my day by rising to the surface, blowing a cloud of bubbles, and then taking a breath. While I’m there, I bask in the sun to warm myself.
Take a Breather
Like you, I need to breathe air. Unlike you, my breathing is not automatic, and I must consciously decide when to inhale. When I am resting, I can wait seven hours between breaths. But when I’m swimming, eating, or traveling, I need to surface every three to five minutes.
Once I’m a little toastier, it’s time for breakfast. I typically remain in the relatively small area I call home, grazing on the sea grasses and algae for the remainder of the morning. Sometimes I stray a bit further than usual while I’m noshing and find myself among an aggregation of other snacking sea turtles. The seagrass beds are so abundant that I tolerate their presence.
Lifestyles of the Other Sea Turtles
As a green sea turtle, I stick to a vegetarian diet—I love seagrasses and algae. That makes me a bit of an oddball in the turtle world, because my relatives are not vegans. Here’s what the rest of the sea turtle crew prefers on the menu:
- Leatherbacks: jellyfish
- Loggerheads: crabs
- Flatbacks: sea cucumbers, soft corals, or squid jellyfish
- Hawksbils: sponges
- Olive ridleys: whatever floats their way including crabs, shrimp, mollusks, sea urchins, clams, snails, jellyfish, algae, and fish.
- Kemp’s ridleys:blue crab
Each of us has our own taste, shaped by where we live and what’s around—but when it comes to eating, we’re all pros.
Afternoon Delight
By midday, it’s time to rest on the seabed, wedged under my favorite rock. After my nap, I head to the local cleaning station where I assume a neck-out and flippers-spread position so the cleaner fish can nibble the algae and tiny parasites from my body. Once I’m spruced up, I float at the surface to bask in the sun, warming myself before it’s time to grab another snack.
Before the sun goes down, I head back to my favorite sleeping spot. I tuck myself into my crevice for a shell-axing night’s rest.
How To Help Us
If you’re interested in helping us sea turtles, I have a few suggestions. Marine debris causes many of our problems so supporting groups that are trying to clean our oceans really helps. You can also make sure you don’t leave fishing line and gear behind. If you are visiting a beach during sea turtle nesting season, make sure you fill in any sand castles or holes you may have created during the day. Although I’m impressed by your building and digging skills, these can be traps for young sea turtles. Explore other specific actions you can take by visiting Threats to the Oceans. Illegal hunting is also problematic so funding rangers who can watch out for us while we’re nesting is also great. Other groups support us by tempering the impacts of coastal development such as by promoting times for residents to keep their lights off. Finally, you can also limit your carbon footprint to help reduce climate change.
Returning the Favor
Since you’re considering helping us, I’d like to return the favor. We sea turtles start our lives as hatchlings with a race to the ocean, showing that even small steps will get you started on your journey. As adults, we migrate back to the beach where we were born, often traveling thousands of miles in the process. No matter what stage you’re at in your life, if you trust your intuition and follow your inner compass, you’ll find your way!
For more information on sea turtles, read Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation by James Spotila or check out the State of the World’s Sea Turtles site.
Special thanks to Corinne Zelie from the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and Georgia Department of Natural Resources for serving as an expert advisor on sea turtles.
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References
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