09/17/2022
The green turtle is the
largest species in the family
of hard-shelled sea turtles
and second largest to the
leatherback turtle among all sea turtles. Its common
name comes not from the
color of its skin or shell,
which is common among
most sea turtle species, but
from the greenish color of its fat. The green turtle is the only sea turtle that is a strict herbivore, and its diet of
seagrass and algae may
contribute to the green fatty
tissue. Similarly to other sea turtles,
green turtles are known to
travel incredibly long
distances during their
lifetimes. In some cases,
individuals may travel across
entire ocean basins from
their feeding areas to
nesting beaches in the
tropics and sub-tropics.
Green turtles use the earth's
magnetic field like an
invisble map to navigate
throughout their migrations.
Like other marine turtles,
female green turtles return
to the same beach where
they hatched to nest. The
two largest remaining nesting areas (in terms of
numbers of nesting females)
for green turtles are the
Caribbean coast of Central
America and the Great
Barrier Reef in Australia.
