Green Sea Turtle

Chelonia mydas

Description:

Photo take at -35 ft near a Caribbean Reef this has to be the best photo I have take from her i name it Sara.The green sea turtle, possessing a dorsoventrally flattened body covered by a large, teardrop-shaped carapace and a pair of large, paddle-like flippers. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world ,top shell carapace is smooth with shades of black, gray, green, brown, and yellow; their bottom shell plastron is yellowish white.

Habitat:

Adult green turtles are unique among sea turtles in that they eat only plants; they are herbivorous, feeding primarily on seagrasses and algae. This diet is thought to give them greenish-colored fat, from which they take their name.Adult females migrate from foraging areas to mainland or island nesting beaches and may travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers each way. After emerging from the nest, hatchlings swim to offshore areas, where they are believed to live for several years, feeding close to the surface on a variety of pelagic plants and animals. Once the juveniles reach a certain age/size range, they leave the pelagic habitat and travel to nearshore foraging grounds. Once they move to these nearshore benthic habitats, adult green turtles are almost exclusively herbivores, feeding on sea grasses and algae.

Notes:

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has repeatedly listed green sea turtles in its Red List as an endangered species.

Species ID Suggestions

25 Comments (1–25)

maplemoth662 5 years ago

A beautiful, Green, Sea Turtle....

AntónioGinjaGinja 5 years ago

Beautiful shots Gerardo,congrats and thanks for your amazing spotting page and good to see you arround :-)

Roy Arun 5 years ago

Magnificent....

Mark Ridgway 5 years ago

Magic images Gerardo. And she is truly magnificent. Congratulations.

Gerardo Aizpuru 5 years ago

Thank you so much Daniel I appreciated, thanks to all you guys thanks for your comments I appreciated

DanielePralong 5 years ago

Congratulations Gerardo, we've chosen your beautiful Green Sea Turtle spotting for World Sea Turtle Day:

"On #WorldSeaTurtleDay, we are reminded again of the threats that plastics pose to marine wildlife, and to fragile sea turtles in particular. Marine wildlife is affected by plastic pollution in multiple ways, including through ingestion, entanglement and habitat degradation. For sea turtles though, this threat is exacerbated by the complexity of their life histories, migratory behavior, and use of multiple types of terrestrial and marine habitats. For the grazing green sea turtle pictured here, ingestion of clear soft plastic mistaken for seagrass can cause malnutrition as its stomach get filled with non-food materials, blockages, internal injuries and ultimately death.
To learn more about sea turtles and plastics, and how to help reduce ocean plastic pollution: https://buff.ly/2JJh0tZ "

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Gerardo Aizpuru 11 years ago

Thanks Carol so much :)

CarolSnowMilne 12 years ago

Wonderful series and posted them to the nature group at FB for EARTH WEEK Animal of the Day - Tuesday. Congrats!

Gerardo Aizpuru 12 years ago

Thanks Mary please share those photos when you have it!

MaryEvans2 12 years ago

Incredible series of photos!
I just purchased an underwater camera (definitely not top of the line) and hope to get photos of our manatees - if they come out half as good as these, i will be ecstatic.