Hobbies And Interests
The Green Sea Turtle
This large sea turtle can grow up to 5 feet long and has a lifespan of more than 100 years. It prefers tropical waters of a milder temperature, and adults are often seen looking for food among coral reefs and shallow, shoreline areas grazing on vegetation such as sea grass. Younger turtles are more often found further away from shore. The turtles lay their eggs on shore, burying their clutch of about 100 eggs on subtropical or tropical beaches. After the eggs are buried, the female leaves them to hatch, which may take a few months, and returns to the sea.
Loggerhead Sea Turtle
These turtles are much smaller than the green sea turtle, reaching an average length of between 30 to 50 inches. Food sources are mollusks, shrimp, crabs and jelly fish. Their lifespan can reach more than 50 years. The loggerhead prefers the temperate tropical water temperatures of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. They are found in these warmer coastal waters worldwide. Females can nest as much as seven times a season, laying more than 120 eggs each time along sandy coastal areas.
Leatherback Sea Turtle
The largest of marine sea turtles, the leatherback is very distinctive in that it does not have a regular shell or carapace like other turtles. Instead, it has leathery, dark brown or black skin along its back and bony, flexible plates that are set on seven ridges running along its back and five along the underside. This flexible, internal shell allows the turtle to dive to greater depths and withstand high water pressure. This large turtle's body can reach lengths of over 6 feet and weighs over 1,000 lbs. It can be found along temperate regions as with other sea turtles and also nests along shorelines. It prefers feeding on jellyfish in open ocean waters rather than along the shoreline.
Other Threatened Sea Turtles
The hawksbill turtle's head tapers into a V shape resembling a bird's beak. Its relatively small body size, with an average length of 35 inches, is quite distinctive among sea turtles. Kemp's ridley turtles are the most endangered of all sea turtles; its relative, the olive ridley, is the smallest of all sea turtles reaching only up to 2 feet in body length. The olive ridley also is on the list of endangered sea turtles, threatened both by climate change and human activity.