You Need To Know About These Facts About Green Sea Turtle

One of the larger species of sea turtles is the Green Sea Turtle. It can be up to 400 pounds and as long as 5 ½ feet. They are a common tourist attraction that people love to observe when they come to Hawaii during certain times of the year. This is a big part of the economic development there as well as educating people about the value of these sea turtles.

Many people are surprised that this sea turtle has such a name because it isn't green. It is more of a dark brown or olive color. The name for it comes from the fact that it has fat that is green in color. However, the top of the shell can be various shades of orange and red too. The coloring will actually change at different points in their life. The body of this sea turtle is large and the carapace is tear drop shaped. They have very large flippers that look like paddles.

The snout of this sea turtle is very short and it doesn't have a hooked beak. The lower jaw has a serrated element to it. On the surface of the head there is a pair of pre-frontal scales. The carapace offers five central scutes and then four pairs of lateral scutes. The underside of it also has four pairs of scutes.

The sub tropic and tropical regions are home to the Green Sea Turtle. The largest population of them is believed to be around Hawaii. They are also known to live in Asia, Australia, and the waters around Mexico.

They are known to migrate long distances – even thousands of miles – to find food, for mating, and to reach their nesting ground destination. They tend to stay closer to the shore than other sea turtles so they are more observed at the surface of the water and out of the water. They are known to go to the shore during the day and just soak up the sun. There isn't a great deal of other information well known about their behaviors.

The young Green Sea Turtles feed on meat, and will do so for about the first years of life. Then they will start to eat various forms of plant life include sea grass and algae. By the time they are fully mature, they are going to switch to a diet that is only plant related. They will start to eat much more though as they switch to plants because they aren't as filling as meat. They do need to get air about every 5 minutes, but still they are known to be deep divers to get food.

For the Green Seat Turtle, mating won't occur until they are 15 or more years of age. Usually, that time frame is more dependent on their size than on age. The larger they get, the more likely they are to start mating. Males will return to the location where they were born to find a mate annually.

This could prove to be a short distance or a very significant distance. Females may end up at the location where they were born but they tend to have several breeding locations that they can pick from. Some females go to the same location year after year but that isn't always the case. The females don't mate annually, only ever 2 to 4 years. Once the females are ready to lay their eggs, they go to the shore and they will dig a nest to place them in. She may offer from 100 to 200 eggs and then cover them up to protect them from predators and the elements.

Green Sea Turtle's Life

The green turtle is a large, weighty sea turtle with a wide, smooth carapace, or shell. It inhabits tropical and subtropical coastal waters around the world and has been observed clambering onto land to sunbathe.

It is named not for the color of its shell, which is normally brown or olive depending on its habitat, but for the greenish color of its skin. There are two types of green turtles—scientists are currently debating whether they are subspecies or separate species—including the Atlantic green turtle, normally found off the shores of Europe and North America, and the Eastern Pacific green turtle, which has been found in coastal waters from Alaska to Chile.
Weighing up to 700 pounds (317.5 kilograms) green turtles are among the largest sea turtles in the world. Their proportionally small head, which is nonretractable, extends from a heart-shaped carapace that measures up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). Males are slightly larger than females and have a longer tail. Both have flippers that resemble paddles, which make them powerful and graceful swimmers.
Unlike most sea turtles, adult green turtles are herbivorous, feeding on sea grasses and algae. Juvenile green turtles, however, will also eat invertebrates like crabs, jellyfish, and sponges.

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.