May I humbly ask for info on green sea turtles?? :3
Day 360#: Green Sea Turtle
Today's animal of the day is the Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas)!
Photo credit: Selene E. Jacobo Cabral
The green sea turtle is probably the most popular species of sea turtle, most likely due to their large range, as they can be found in tropical and subtropical oceans around the world. Despite their name, these turtles are mostly shades of brown and yellow, with some olive markings. Their name actually comes from a layer of fat located between the inside of their shells and internal organs, which is green due to their diet of seagrass. Like the other six species of sea turtles, green sea turtles spend most of their lives out at sea and only come to shore to lay their eggs or if they are sick and become stranded. As a result, they have several adaptations to help them survive for extended periods of time in the water, such as their paddle-like limbs and streamlined bodies.
Photo credit: Brocken Inaglory
Adult green sea turtles spend most of their time in relatively shallow coastal waters, where there are plenty of seagrass meadows for them to graze in. They will also often inhabit coral reefs, where they feed on algae instead of seagrass. Coral reefs also provide them with protection from storms and potential predators, such as tiger sharks. Unlike many species of freshwater and terrestrial turtles, green sea turtles are unable to retract their heads and limbs into their shells, which makes them easy targets for predators to latch onto. Luckily, these turtles are surprisingly quick and can swim up to 40 mph in short bursts when threatened. They've also been known to block the attacks of tiger sharks by quickly turning their bodies so their shield-like carapaces (the top part of the shell) face the shark's mouth, making it difficult for the shark to bite down on them.
Photo credit: National Park Service
The exact timing varies depending on the population, but during the breeding season, green sea turtles will often migrate to the exact beach where they were born so they can mate and lay their own eggs. It's believed that they are capable of sensing the Earth's magnetic field, which, combined with using the position of the sun and water temperature, helps them to find their way to the nesting beaches. Females usually only make this trip once every two to four years, while males will return to their breeding sites every year in order to mate. After a female turtle has successfully mated and is ready to lay her eggs, she will dig a 11-22 in deep hole in the sand with her back flippers in order to lay her eggs in. A single female turtle can lay anywhere from 85 to 200 eggs in a single clutch, and they often lay 3-5 different clutches (sometimes with different males) each breeding season. Once she is done laying her eggs, the female will bury them and return to the sea.
Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servive
Eggs hatch around 50-70 days after they are laid. Hatchinglings usually emerge at night and are mostly black in color. As soon as they hatch, the baby turtles will immediately start booking it towards the water. This is the most dangerous time in their lives, as baby turtles make for an easy snack for all sorts of predators, like crabs, shorebirds, jackals, foxes, seals, as well as stray cats and dogs. Even if they make it to the water, large fish can easily swallow a newborn turtle whole! If they make it to the water, the baby turtles will spend the first few years of their life living in the open ocean and feeding on small fish, molluscs, crustaceans, jellyfish, and other small marine creatures. Because they live in the open ocean, these young turtles are rarely encountered, and not much is known about this time of their lives. As they mature, they slowly turn into omnivores, and their black coloration starts to turn a more brownish color. By the time they reach sexual maturity (at around eight years old), they will have become fully herbivorous. Sadly, only about 1% of all sea turtles make it to adulthood, which is why females lay so many eggs.
Photo credit: National Marine Sanctuaries
These turtles fill a similar niche as grazing bison do on land, since they eat the blades of the seagrass but leave the roots alone, which helps to stimulate the seagrass to grow more. Many species of smaller fish, like yellow tangs, also use the sea turtles as a source of food and protection, since they often pick off parasites from the turtles' shells. As sad as it is, the hundreds of baby sea turtles that don't make it to the ocean also greatly benefit the local ecosystem by providing food to a wide variety of predators, and many more creatures will eat the egg shells of hatched turtles as a source of calcium.
Photo credit: Alexander Vasenin
Sadly, these amazing reptiles have experienced a major population decline due to human activities. Humans have hunted green sea turtles as a source of food, leather, and cartilage for hundreds, if not thousands, of years; however, in the modern era, they've been overhunted to the point of going locally extinct in several parts of the world. Many turtle nesting sites have also been destroyed in order to be turned into swim beaches and resorts. Light pollution also often confuses baby turtles and causes them to go inland instead of out to sea, which is a death sentence, and both juvenile and adult turtles are often killed by boat strikes.
Photo credit: Charlie Shuetrim
Thankfully, in 1982, they were classified as an endangered species, and they were given legal protection in many parts of the world. It became illegal to hunt green sea turtles in some places or to transport/sell items made from them. Certain beaches would start closing during the breeding season to protect their nests from tourists. People also began commercially farming sea turtles, which, while still unethical, did help take some of the pressure off wild turtles for their meat, skin, shells, and eggs. Though some of these turtle farms will lie to tourists and claim to be breeding turtles for "conservation," so people come and pay money to hold and take pictures of baby turtles that they claimed would be released into the wild, but were actually going to be slaughtered. Despite this, and thanks to the efforts of actual conservationists around the world, as of 2025, the green sea turtle is no longer considered endangered! Though certain threats still remain, such as baby turtles being disturbed by stray dogs and cats, turtles drowning after becoming tangled in fishing nets or floating trash, and being struck by speeding boats. UNFORTUNATELY, an evil orange hobgoblin recently removed many of the legal protections that helped to protect these beautiful turtles. Hopefully, they don't become immediately endangered again.
Photo credit: Brocken Inaglory
Thanks anon for requesting this species!
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