Sea+turtle

=**Sea Turtle**= = = There are three species of sea turtles native to the Hawaiian Islands they are the Green, the Hawksbill, and the Leatherback. These fascinating creatures have played important roles in the environment and culture of Hawaii's people. Of the three native sea turtles, the Green Turtle (Honu) is the most common. These turtles, which can weigh up to 400 pounds, are primarily vegetarians. They eat algae and Hawaiian seaweed or limu, growing underwater on coral reefs and on rocks close to shore. Green turtles prefer to live near large "pastures" of limu that are located in near shore waters around the Hawaiian Islands. The upper shells of adults are dark with olive or gold flecks and receive their name from the color of their body fat rather than their shell color.

Six of the seven species of sea turtles are listed as endangered or threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act. An endangered species is in immediate danger of extinction; a threatened species is one that is likely to become endangered in the near future. In Hawaii, the green turtle is a threatened species. The Hawksbill and Leatherback turtles are considered endangered species worldwide.Once there were tens of millions of green sea turtles around the world. Now there may be fewer than 200,000 mature females. Only 100 to 350 females nest each year, principally at French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Because hawksbills do not nest in groups and leatherbacks do not nest in Hawaii at all, it is difficult to make good estimates for the size of these two species in Hawaii.

The life span of sea turtles is unknown. Hawaiian green turtles seem to grow very slowly in the wild and may take 40 to 50 years to reach maturity. When male green turtles become mature, he male develops a long tail extending beyond the hind flippers. (A female's tail extends only a short distance beyond the end of her shell.) Generally, only female sea turtles leave the ocean after entering it as hatchlings. But in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands male and female green turtles crawl onto beaches and lie motionless in the sunlight for hours. Turtles may bask in order to increase their body temperature or to avoid tiger sharks.

All sea turtles in Hawaii are fully protected under state law in addition to the Federal Endangered Species Act. These laws prohibit harassing, harming, killing, or keeping sea turtles in captivity without a permit allowing these activities for research or educational purposes. Divers should be aware that riding turtles is illegal and puts these animals under stress. When returning from foreign countries, U.S. citizens may not enter the United States with any sea turtle products.

Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females must return to land in order to lay their eggs. Scientists believe that nesting female turtles return to the same beach on which they were born. Hawaii's green turtles migrate up to 800 miles from their feeding areas near the coast of the main islands to nesting beaches in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The males accompany the females in this migration and mate with them offshore from the nesting beaches. Females often come ashore to nest several times in a season, but wait two to three years before nesting again. Green turtles nest only at night and can be frightened away by lights or movement. It is not easy for these turtles to find a suitable nesting site on land, where they no longer have the buoyancy of water to support their bodies. While on land, these animals shed large, sticky tears that remove excess salt from the body and prevent the eyes from being covered with sand. When a female finds a suitable nesting site, she uses her flippers to dig a body pit about her. She then digs a flask-shaped egg cavity with her rear flippers. This arduous effort generally lasts all night. After depositing about 100 eggs, the female covers the nest with sand and returns to the sea, leaving the eggs to incubate during the next two months. After hatching, the tiny, one-ounce turtles take several days to emerge from the nest. A single hatchling would not be able to emerge from the nest by itself. Working as a team, hatchlings scrape sand off the roof of the nest cavity and pack this sand on the floor. In doing so, hatchlings raise their nest toward the surface of the beach. When they are about an inch from the surface, the topmost hatchlings cease their activities if the sand is hot. Cool sand indicates that it is night or an overcast day. The hatchlings then emerge from the nest, thereby avoiding the sun's heat and perhaps predatory birds. Once out of the nest, the hatchlings race to the water and swim constantly for the next 36 to 48 hours. They are then carried by currents to favorable areas in the open ocean, where they grow for several years until they join adult and juvenile turtles at the coastal feeding grounds. While in the open ocean, young green turtles are probably carnivorous and feed on invertebrates such as jellyfish. Some hatchlings never reach the oceans and are snatched up by hungry crabs. Hatchlings may also be disoriented or impeded by obstacles and die from the suns heat. Once in the ocean, sharks and other carnivorous fish eat hatchlings. Due to their size and swiftness in the water, adult sea turtles have only two predators: sharks and people. Tiger sharks regularly feed on all sizes of green turtles.

Green Sea Turtles nest only at night. After 7-10 weeks gestation period, the females pull themselves out of the water to the dry sand of the upper beach. Here, she uses her front flippers to dig a broad pit and her rear flippers to excavate an egg chamber. She then lays her clutch, which consists of 100-120 ping-pong sized, leathery-skinned eggs, in the egg chamber and carefully covers them with sand. Females lay up to five or six clutches of eggs in a breeding season. Once she buries the pit and disguises the location, her parenting job is complete. She returns to sea leaving her young to fend for themselves.





Sea turtles [|seaturtles.org]

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