Sea Turtles Explained
#10.
All seven species of sea turtles are considered threatened or endangered
Although sea turtles have been around for about 110 to 150 million years, the seven
remaining species that exist have all been classified by conservationist groups like
the International Union for Conservation of Nature as either threatened, endangered, or
critically endangered.
Sea turtles have never had the greatest population growth rates but in recent times, the destruction
of their habitats by the activities of man has made everything worse for them.
Two sea turtle species are critically endangered, one species is endangered, three are threatened,
and one last species doesn t even have sufficient data to be classified.
Now, there are about 6.5 million sea turtles left in the world.
#9.
One out of thousand hatchlings survive to adulthood
You see, even though they are classified as reptiles and not amphibians, the adult female
sea turtle lays eggs on the sand on land.
This allows the eggs to incubate appropriately.
After laying eggs, she returns back to the water, leaving the new hatchlings to fend
for themselves.
When all the sea turtles are born, they have to make it to the water.
The short journey from the beach to the water can be a hellish gauntlet.
They have to contend with all sorts of predators like sea birds, crabs, fire ants, dogs, raccoons,
and lizards.
There may be other problems as well, such as turning over and being unable to move or
adverse weather conditions.
Then, once they get into the water and begin their life in earnest, they have to struggle
to find food in addition to avoiding ocean predators like sharks and dolphins.
Because of all this adversity, only one out of a thousand sea turtle hatchlings ever makes
it to adulthood.
#8.
The sex of sea turtles depends on nest temperature For most other creatures, sex is nearly randomly
determined with an about 50% chance of an offspring being born as either sex.
But for sea turtles and other reptiles, sexual determination is a little more complicated
than that.
As it turns out, the sex that a young sea turtle is born with is determined by the temperature
of their nest.
The typical nest temperature is about 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, from experimentation, it has been determined that temperatures above 86 degrees
Fahrenheit produces all females, while temperatures below 81.86 C produce all-male broods.
Although, through evolutionary programming, mothers know exactly where to lay their eggs,
things like adverse weather conditions can always skew the sex towards one gender.
And this is part of why sea turtles struggle so hard to grow their populations.
#7.
Sea turtles don t have a favorite food The diet of a sea turtle will vary by its
location and species.
And although most sea turtles will choose to eat jellyfish, this is only because of
population statistics.
You see, the most populous species of sea turtles, the leatherbacks, are the ones which
love to eat jellyfish.
Because of their sheer numbers, people have assumed that this preference for jellyfish
is the same for all other sea turtle species.
In reality, other species have different preferences.
For example, green sea turtles eat mostly seagrass, loggerhead sea turtles prefer crustaceans
and hawksbills sea turtles prefer sea sponges.
They are omnivorous and tend to make do with what they can get their hands on.
And so, unlike a creature like a giant panda that eats bamboo exclusively, sea turtles
don t have an exclusive diet.
#6.
Their migratory habits vary from species to species
Migration is a behavior that a wide variety of animals exhibit.
It is performed for a wide variety of reasons.
Typically, animals migrate to find food.
This can coincide with changing weather patterns.
When winter arrives, most creatures like to migrate away from their homes to find their
prey, which are in turn running away from the cold.
When it comes to sea turtles, some species love to migrate while others do not.
This is consistent with what scientists know about migration since sea turtle species are
quite widely distributed and location plays a big part in this behavior.
Sea turtle species like leatherbacks and loggerheads can travel thousands of miles each year in
search of better environmental conditions.
Then, we have species like greens and olive ridleys which migrate alright, but not to
extreme distances.
Finally, we have the hawksbills species, which rarely, if ever, leaves its immediate vicinity.
#5.
They are the largest hard-shelled marine turtle in the world
Sea turtles are not the only marine turtles in existence.
They just tend to dominate the conversation because they are so large.
In reality, there are at least 30 species of other marine turtles in existence.
These creatures, unlike the sea turtle, come with soft shells that set them apart.
They don t have the complex shell architecture which sea turtles have.
They also hardly ever grow to a decently large size.
They often stay submerged in sand and hunt their prey by ambush.
The sea turtle, on the other hand, doesn t need to resort to such tactics.
By virtue of its relatively large size, it can hunt for jellyfish as comfortably as it
wants.
Sea turtles can grow between 6 to 9 feet in length.
This is longer than a Christmas tree.
They can also weigh as much as 1500 pounds.
That s about ten times as heavy as a beer keg.
#4.
Sea Turtles are a key link in the marine food chain
As large as sea turtles are, they are by no means at the top of the food chain.
This is because the sea is filled with some of the largest predators known to man including
the killer whale and the great white shark.
Even though sea turtles have shells intended to protect them from predation, the great
killers of the ocean still find a way.
The shell of an average turtle is stronger than aluminum.
For a sea turtle, the shell is even stronger since it has to have the strength to withstand
the great fluid pressure of the depths.
But in spite of all this, the bite force of great white sharks can break these shells
pretty easily.
This isn t to say sea turtles are at the bottom of the food chain either.
They control prey species like scrabs and jellyfish, keeping their population figures
in check.
And the sea turtle species that eat grass keep it from growing too tall and disrupting
the activities of other sea creatures.
Therefore, they are the ocean s lawnmowers.
#3.
Green sea turtles are not green A particular specie of sea turtle is referred
to as the green sea turtle.
Even though the name seems pretty direct, you wouldn t be able to pick out a green sea
turtle by color alone.
As a matter of fact, the green sea turtle has a shell that is usually brown or olive.
And so, where does the name come from?
Well, it comes mostly from their diet.
Unlike other species of sea turtles, the green sea turtle is largely an herbivore.
This species really likes to consume a lot of seagrasses and algae.
But hold on.
The reason doesn t stop there.
As a matter of fact, the same pigment that gives these food sources their green color
is in turn transferred to the body of these green sea turtles.
And so, beneath their brown and olive carapaces, they have green-colored cartilage and fat.
#2.
Sea turtles cannot retract into their shells Land turtles have an advantage here over sea
turtles because whenever there are signs of trouble, a land turtle can simply retract
its limbs and head into its shell until it s safe to come out again.
Well, sea turtles cannot do that and there are key reasons why.
For one, if their head and limbs were retractable, those spaces would quickly become filled with
seawater, messing with their physiology and potentially killing them.
Another reason is that they need to keep their limbs outside to help them navigate the sea.
If they could not navigate, they would sink towards the deep depths where they would drown,
be crushed by the massive water pressure, or get eaten by something horrifically large.
#1.
Sea turtles can hold their breath for up to 5 hours underwater
This is impressive, especially when you consider that they can dive to depths of up to 960
feet beneath the ocean s surface.
Given that they are reptiles, they still need to breathe, of course.
And so, they need to resurface periodically.
The reason they dive so deep is that sometimes the food near the surface of the water is
scarce.
And so, only by going deeper can they satisfy their hunger.
They also dive deep in order to avoid predators.
Sea turtle predators, like sharks, like to stick close to the surface of the water.
By going deep, sea turtles save themselves a lot of trouble.
To hold their breath for that long, sea turtles slow down their heart rate.
In as much as they are great divers, they need to watch the temperature of the water
they descend into.
Otherwise, they place themselves at the risk of a phenomenon known as cold stunning.
This is when sea turtles enter cold ocean water of about 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit,
which causes the turtles to float to the surface and therefore makes it impossible for them
to swim.
Which fact of the Sea turtle did you find most amazing?