20 Oct

green sea turtle scientific name

All sea turtles are listed as endangered species in the United States, meaning it is a federal offense to harm, harass, or even touch a sea turtle. Incubation ranges from about 45 to 75 days, depending on incubation temperatures. Nesting occurs nocturnally at 2, 3, or 4-year intervals. *Due to the constant rotation of animals back to the ocean, the presence of any specific animal cannot be guaranteed. Upon reaching their destination, the females laboriously haul themselves out of the water getting as far away from the tide line as possible. Eyesight underwater is excellent while above water they are reported to be nearsighted. This program is specifically designed as an educational outreach program geared towards education, conservation, and the enhancement of the public’s awareness of the oceans and its inhabitants.

Seabirds frequently spot them from the air and many species of fish prey on hatchlings.

The Hawaiian green sea turtle typically reaches sexual maturity after reaching 20 years of age, with some turtles in a study over 40 before mating the first time.

Common Name: Green sea turtle – named for the green color of the fat under its shell.

This diet is thought to give them greenish colored fat, from which they take their name. Within the U.S., green turtles nest in small numbers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and in larger numbers in Florida. This diet is what gives their cartilage and fat a greenish color (not their shells), which is where their name comes from. The Florida green turtle nesting aggregation is recognized as a regionally significant colony. The nesting season varies with the locality. (In some areas, the Pacific green turtle is also called the black sea turtle.) Hawaiian Name: Honu Hawaiian green sea turtles, or honu, are native to Hawaii. Females may mate every two years and after doing so, over ninety percent will swim from the main island chain westward to the French Frigate Shoals, a distance of nearly 600 miles (Maui to the shoals), to lay her eggs. A green turtle's carapace (top shell) is smooth and can be shades of black, gray, green, brown, and yellow. 150-400 pounds. In the U.S. Pacific, over 90 percent of nesting throughout the Hawaiian archipelago occurs at the French Frigate Shoals, where about 200 to 700 females nest each year. Green turtle hatchlings are about 50 mm (2.0 inches) long and weight about 25 g (0.88 ounces). In the Indian Ocean, major nesting beaches occur in Oman where 6,000 to 20,000 females are reported to nest annually. As adults, honu mainly eat algae and sea grasses, which turn their fat layer green, giving them their common name. Current research in Hawaii shows the Hawaiian green turtle population is increasing since they have been protected by federal law.

Scientific Name: Chelonia mydas Description Green turtles are the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles with adults reaching a meter (3.3 feet) in carapace length and 150 kg (330 pounds) in weight. Significance in Hawaiian Culture Only occasionally do females produce clutches in successive years. These harvests continue in some areas of the world and compromise efforts to recover this species. Green turtles apparently have a strong nesting site fidelity and often make long distance migrations between feeding grounds and nesting beaches. With an omnivorous diet, they feed upon sea jellies, crustaceans, and fish. Once the juveniles reach a certain age/size range, they leave the pelagic habitat and travel to nearshore foraging grounds. Sex is determined by temperature – the cooler the sand, the more males. Green turtles are generally found in fairly shallow waters (except when migrating) inside reefs, bays, and inlets. Scientists estimate green turtles reach sexual maturity anywhere between 20 and 50 years, at which time females begin returning to their natal beaches (i.e., the same beaches where they were born) every 2-4 years to lay eggs. These waters include Culebra's outlying Keys including Cayo Norte, Cayo Ballena, Cayos Geniqu, Isla Culebrita, Arrecife Culebrita, Cayo de Luis PeZa, Las Hermanas, El Mono, Cayo Lobo, Cayo Lobito, Cayo Botijuela, Alcarraza, Los Gemelos, and Piedra Steven. Green turtles primarily use three types of habitat: oceanic beaches (for nesting), convergence zones in the open ocean, and benthic feeding grounds in coastal areas. The green turtle has a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical waters.

The color of their carapace (upper shell) ranges from brown with yellow and light brown streaks to black.

Scientific Name: Chelonia mydas Description: They are easily distinguished from other sea turtles because they have a single pair of prefrontal scales (scales in front of its eyes), rather than two pairs as found on other sea turtles. Whether the turtle is in the water or resting on a beach, any physical contact is prohibited.

But the real challenge is making it to the open ocean as the sandy shorelines and shallow reefs pose a high threat.

Some individuals or families did not take or consume honu, rather they were thought as family deities (aumākua) and were worshipped and cared for. Many coastal counties and communities in Florida have developed lighting ordinances to reduce hatchling disorientations. The green turtle is globally distributed and generally found in tropical and subtropical waters along continental coasts and islands between 30 North and 30 South. Open beaches with a sloping platform and minimal disturbance are required for nesting. During the nesting season, females nest at approximately two week intervals, laying an average of five clutches. Typically done in the early summer months, about two months later the hatchlings emerge. They have a smooth carapace with four pairs of lateral scutes and a single pair of elongated prefrontal scales between the eyes. All rights reserved. Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle Reproduction They dig a pit called a nest chamber and lay an average of 75 to 100 eggs per nest digging as many as six nests in one season. They are unique among sea turtles in that they are herbivores, eating mostly seagrasses and algae. The tumors interfere with swimming, eating, breathing, vision, and reproduction, and turtles with heavy tumor burdens become severely debilitated and die. Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle Educational Loan Program © 2020 Maui Ocean Center. The longest recorded downtime was five hours. The turtles are attracted to lagoons and shoals with an abundance of marine grass and algae. In Florida, green turtle nests contain an average of 135 eggs, which will incubate for approximately 2 months before hatching. About 200 to 1,100 females are estimated to nest on beaches in the continental U.S. Age at sexual maturity is believed to be 20 to 50 years. Green turtles are also threatened, in some areas of the world, by a disease known as fibropapillomatosis (FP). 50 CFR 226.208 Culebra Island, Puerto Rico - Waters surrounding the island of Culebra from the mean high water line seaward to 3 nautical miles (5.6 km). Juveniles return to their coastal grazing areas after five to ten years, where they mostly graze on seaweed (limu). They are the largest hard-shelled sea turtle in the world, reaching lengths of four feet and weights over 300 pounds. The principal cause of the historical, worldwide decline of the green turtle is long-term harvest of eggs and adults on nesting beaches and juveniles and adults on feeding grounds. In the southeastern U.S., females generally nest between June and September, while peak nesting occurs in June and July. Out of the seven types of sea turtle, the Hawaiian green sea turtle is the most common turtle in Hawaii. The first few years of their lives, also called “the lost years”, are spent roaming the open ocean or pelagic zone where it is believed they find mats of algae, seaweed, or debris for protection. Incidental capture in fishing gear, primarily in gillnets, but also in trawls, traps and pots, longlines, and dredges is a serious ongoing source of mortality that also adversely affects the species' recovery. With lungs two-thirds as long as their carapace, it is believed they can stay underwater for many hours depending on the animal’s size. Habitats. In the western Pacific, the largest green turtle nesting aggregation in the world occurs on Raine Island, Australia, where thousands of females nest nightly in an average nesting season.

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.

Length. Hatchlings have been observed to seek refuge and food in Sargassum rafts.

In old Hawaii, green sea turtles were thought to be the property of the ali‘i, or chiefs, and were sometimes raised in loko i‘a, or fishponds, according to Maui Ocean Center’s Hawaiian Cultural Advisor Kahu Dane Maxwell. SLPH is home to a colony of adult Hawaiian green sea turtles which produces approximately 200-800 hatchlings each year, most of which are released into the wild, except those kept at collaborating institutions to be released at a later date as juveniles. Other threats include loss or degradation of nesting habitat from coastal development and beach armoring; disorientation of hatchlings by beachfront lighting; excessive nest predation by native and non-native predators; degradation of foraging habitat; marine pollution and debris; watercraft strikes; and incidental take from channel dredging and commercial fishing operations.

Green turtles are the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles with adults reaching a meter (3.3 feet) in carapace length and 150 kg (330 pounds) in weight.

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