Sea Turtles Facts and Video - Testudines - Defenders of Wildlife

Video

Sea turtles are one of the Earth's most ancient creatures. The seven species that can be found today have been around for 120 million years, that's longer than the dinosaurs. The sea turtle's shell, or "carapace" is streamlined for swimming through the water. Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their legs and head into their shells. Their color varies between yellow, greenish and black depending on the species.

Fast Facts

Size: Kemp's Ridley is the smallest sea turtle at 30 inches long (.762m). The largest sea turtle is the leatherback - an adult can reach over six and a half feet long (over 1.8m). Adult female and male sea turtles are the same size.

Weight: Kemp's Ridley weighs between 80-100lbs (36-45 kg). Leatherback can weigh over 2,000 pounds (over 907 kg)

Lifespan: Up to 80 years.

Adopt a Sea Turtle and Help Save Sea Turtles

Diet

What sea turtles eat depends on the subspecies, but some common items include jellyfish, seaweed, crabs, shrimp, sponges, snails, algae and mollusks.

Population

It is difficult to find population numbers for sea turtles because male and juvenile sea turtles do not return to shore once they hatch and reach the ocean, which makes it hard to keep track of them.

Range

Sea turtles are found in all warm and temperate waters throughout the world and migrate hundreds of miles between nesting and feeding grounds. Most sea turtles undergo long migrations, some as far as 1400 miles, between their feeding grounds and the beaches where they nest. See a sea turtle range map >>

Behavior

Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the water, where not much information can be gathered on their behavior. Most of what is known about sea turtle behavior is obtained by observing hatchlings and females that leave the water to lay eggs. Sea turtles, like salmon, will return to the same nesting grounds at which they were born. When females come to the shore they dig out a nest in the ground with their back flippers, bury their clutch of eggs and return to the ocean. After hatching, the young may take as long as a week to dig themselves out of the nest. They emerge at night, move toward the ocean and remain there, solitary, until it is time to mate.

Reproduction
Temperature: Temperatures of the sand where the turtles nest determine the sex of the turtle: below 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30ºC) is predominately male; above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30ºC) is predominately female.
Mating Season: March-October depending on the species.
Gestation: 6-10 weeks.
Clutch size: Between 70-190 eggs depending on the species.
When the young hatch out of their eggs, they make their way to the ocean. Few survive to adulthood.

Did You Know?

Green sea turtles can stay under water for as long as five hours even though the length of a feeding dive is usually five minutes or less. Their heart rate slows to conserve oxygen: nine minutes may elapse between heartbeats.

Global Warming and Other Threats

Global warming poses a unique threat to sea turtles, since the temperature at which the egg incubates determines the sex of the turtle. As global temperatures continue to rise, sea turtles could be faced with the reality of only females being born in clutches that are laid in sand with temperatures over 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Global warming increases the severity of costal storms as well as contributes to sea level rise as the Arctic ice melts. Stronger coastal storms and sea level rise will destroy sea turtle nesting sites.

Sea turtles are threatened by coastal development, an extensive market for turtles and eggs, pollution and pathogens, global warming and fisheries. Fisheries are thought to be one of the leading causes for sea turtle death and injury worldwide and can occur when turtles bite baited hooks, become entangled in fishing lines or are crushed by dredges.

Defenders of Wildlife works with conservation partners to protect coastal beaches used by sea turtles as nesting sanctuaries and educate coastal home and hotel owners to keep their lights dim so as to not interrupt turtle nesting seasons. Defenders is also working to ensure that fisheries around the world use turtle friendly methods and gear.

Defenders at Work

In April of 2009 Defenders and other conservation groups brought legal action against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) after data indicated that the bottom longline fishery operating in the Gulf of Mexico caught 8 times the number of sea turtles authorized by NMFS. This resulted in a 6 month stoppage of the fishery operations to immediately protect sea turtles from incidental take.

Legal Status/Protection

Endangered Species Act: Six out of seven sea turtle species are protected by the Endangered Species Act
IUCN Red List: 3 species are listed as critically endangered, 2 listed as endangered and one as vulnerable.
CITES: All sea turtles are included in Appendix I of CITES.
Learn more about legal status and protection of sea turtles >>

Reasons For Hope

Sea turtles are fortunately one of the better protected animals under various conservation laws. All sea turtles are included in Appendix I of CITES. Six out of seven sea turtle species are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Volunteers and trained professionals are of great help to sea turtles. Doing everything from supervising hatchings to make sure the baby turtles make it to the sea to moving eggs to deeper, cooler holes to ensure an appropriate percentage of males are born. Many seaside towns also take pride in assisting turtle hatchings, hooding streetlights to make sure baby turtles are not confused by them, turning off lights during hatching season and closing and protecting entire stretches of beaches where eggs are laid.

How You Can Help

Help sea turtles and other wildlife by adopting a sea turtle today at our Wildlife Adoption Center.
Take Action for Wildlife at our Wildlife Action Center.
Take these 5 steps to save sea turtles in your community.

For additional information

Defenders' Sea Turtle Conservation Efforts
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
State of the World's Sea Turtles
Sea World: Sea Turtles

WILDLIFEeNEWS

More Fact Sheets

Diet
Population
Range
Behavior
Global Warming & Threats
Legal Status/Protection
Reasons For Hope
How You Can Help
Additional Information

Range Map

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Threat Status

Endangered Species Act

IUCN Red List

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Endangered Species Act - Categories

Endangered Species Act (ESA): five species of sea turtle (Green, Leatherback, Hawksbill, Kemp’s Ridley, and Pacific or Olive Ridley) are listened as endangered, which means they are in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. One species (Loggerhead) is listed as threatened, which means it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.¹

IUCN Red List :: Status

The Hawksbill, Atlantic Ridley, and Leatherback sea turtles are listed as critically endangered, which indicates that they are facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. The Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtle are listed as endangered, which means they are considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. The Pacific or Olive Ridley is listed as vulnerable., which means the probability of its extinction during the next 20 years is at least 10%.²

CITES: Appendix Status

All sea turtles are included in Appendix I, which means they cannot be traded commercially.³

¹The Endangered Species Act requires the US federal government to identify species threatened with extinction, identify habitat they need to survive, and help protect both. In doing so, the Act works to ensure the basic health of our natural ecosystems and protect the legacy of conservation we leave to our children and grandchildren.

² The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on plants and animals that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. The IUCN Species Programme working with the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) has for more than four decades been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties, and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight taxa threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation.

³Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international treaty with 172 member countries. Appendix I species cannot be traded commercially. Appendix II species can be traded commercially only if it does not harm their survival.