The green sea turtle is a reptile with the average lifespan over 80 years. It can grow up to five feet long and can weigh up to 700 pounds. They are an endangered species. The reside in trupical and subtropical coastal waters.
Their shell is not green like you might think. Instead they get their name from the color of their skin. Their shell is normally a brown or olive color.
There are two types of green turles : (1) the Atlantic Green Turtle which can normally be found in Europe and North America; and (2) the Eastern Pacific Green Turtle, which is found from Alaska to Chile.
They can not pull their heads into their shell. The males are slightly larger than the female turtles. They have flippers. They mostly feed on sea grasses and algae.
While most sea turtles warm themselves by swimming close to the surface of shallow waters, the Eastern Pacific green turtle will take to land to bask in the sun. Occasionally seen sunbathing alongside seals and albatrosses, it is one of the few marine turtles known to leave the water other than at nesting times.
Green turtles, like other sea turtles, undertake lengthy migrations from feeding sites to nesting grounds, normally on sandy beaches. Mating occurs every two to four years and normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore. To nest, females leave the sea and choose an area, often on the same beach used by their mothers, to lay their eggs. They dig a pit in the sand with their flippers, fill it with a clutch of 100 to 200 eggs, cover the pit and return to the sea, leaving the eggs to hatch after about two months. The most dangerous time of a green turtle’s life is when it makes the journey from nest to sea. Multiple predators, including crabs and flocks of gulls, voraciously prey on hatchlings during this short scamper.
Green turtles are listed as an endangered species, and a subpopulation in the Mediterranean is listed as critically endangered. Despite this, they are still killed for their meat and eggs. Their numbers are also reduced by boat propeller accidents, fishnet-caused drowning, and the destruction of their nesting grounds by human encroachment.