Green Sea Turtle Facts: Habitat, Diet and Where to See Them

The green turtle is one of the largest sea turtles. By grazing seagrass, it keeps seagrass meadows healthy, benefiting fish and other marine life. Populations have declined through harvesting of eggs and adults, but some nesting sites are recovering under protection.

Interesting facts

It is named for the greenish colour of its fat, not its shell.
Green turtles are the only herbivorous sea turtles as adults.
They can rest underwater for several hours.
The sex of hatchlings depends on sand temperature; warmer sand produces more females.
A female may lay several clutches of around 100 eggs in a single season.
Only about one in a thousand hatchlings is thought to survive to adulthood.

Behaviour

Adults migrate between feeding grounds and nesting beaches every two to four years. Hatchlings spend their early years drifting in the open ocean before settling in coastal feeding areas.

Breeding and young

Females haul themselves up beaches at night, dig a nest and lay eggs that incubate for about two months in the sand. Hatchlings emerge together, usually at night, and head for the brightest horizon, normally the sea.

Threats and conservation

Egg collection and hunting, bycatch in fishing gear, plastic pollution, loss of nesting beaches, artificial lights that disorient hatchlings, and climate change skewing sex ratios.