Leatherback Sea turtles are the Godzilla of the Turtle world! They are the largest of all turtles. The largest Leatherback ever reported was found dead on a beach in Wales in 1988. It weighed an astounding 2,016 pounds ( 916 Kg). The length of its curved upper shell was 101 inches (256.5 cm). The distance between the tips of its outstretched front flippers was 94.8 inches (240.7 cm). Most Leatherback turtles are quite a bit smaller than this, although they are still very large. The adults usually weigh between 440 and 2,000 pounds. Their upper shell is usually about 61 inches long. Male and female leatherbacks are about the same size, but males have a longer tail.

The leatherback turtle is one of the most unique turtles alive, and this is not because if its size! The leatherback turtle also lacks a hard shell. It has instead a shell that is rubbery or leather like (hence the name). The carapace of the leatherback turtle is about 1.6 inches thick; it is made of tough oily tissue. It feels like rubber and has ridges. The large quantities of oil most likely has some function in avoiding the “bends” on deep dives. It may also help with insulation, allowing the leatherbacks to remain active and sustain a body temperature as high as 75 degrees in water as cold as 43 degrees, something a reptile is not supposed to be able to do.

Adult leatherbacks do not all have the same color pattern. Their leathery skin is mostly black with pale spots, which vary in number. Their belly is a patterned pinkish- white and black. The hatchlings are mostly black with stripes of white on their backs. They are covered with scales. The scales disappear as the hatchlings grow up. Their flippers are black with white edges.

Leatherback turtles are amazing divers! They are able to dive to below 3,300 feet deep, which is possibly the greatest depth for any air breathing vertebrate. Only the sperm whale and elephant seals may match or exceed the leatherback’s deep dives. So what draws them so deep? Well jellyfish is certainly a possibility. While it seems rather unlikely that such a large animal would subsist on almost nothing but jellyfish, but it appears to be the case.

A leatherbacks mouth is specifically designed for its jellyfish diet. First, the turtle sucks in its food by expanding its throat. To retain the soft food, the mouth contains numerous stiff, three inch spines that point backward and the six foot esophagus is lined with backward- pointing spines. The razor- sharp, notched jaws are also well adapted for cutting and holding soft prey like jellyfish. Their jellyfish diet is sometimes a problem, as they sometimes mistake discarded plastic bags floating in the sea for jellyfish. This plastic does a great deal of harm for the turtles as it cuts their skin and sometimes hurts them.

A hungry young leatherback may eat twice its weight in jellyfish in a day! The leatherbacks have also been known to graze as far north as Labrador and Alaska. Leatherbacks have been recorded feeding as far as 3,100 miles from their nesting grounds!

Another great thing about Leatherbacks is their amazing speed! They have powerful front flippers, yet they lack the normal claws ( they are the only sea turtle without them). Its head and carapace join smoothly together like a seamed barrel. This makes it easier for them to track through the water at high speeds.

Leatherbacks nest in Florida from April through July. The mating occurs prior to or during the migration from the cooler climates. You will be extremely lucky if you spot a Leatherback nesting, records report that only between 38 and 188 leatherbacks nests annually in Florida.

The Kemp’s Ridley Sea turtle is among the smallest of Sea Turtles, with a shell length of 24 to 30 inches. It is also among the most endangered and nests only in the Gulf of Mexico. So, it is very rare that you will ever see this turtle nesting. Although, it is possible that you may see one swimming.

The Kemps Ridley turtle has five pairs of costal plates on its back, and its carapace is often as wide as it is long. Adult Kemp Ridley’s weigh between 85 and 100 pounds. The carapace is dark gray or grayish-brown in the young, olive green in adults. The Kemps Ridley is considered to be the rarest and most endangered of all sea turtles. In the U.S the juveniles range from Texas to Maine but they are unknown on the pacific coast.

The Kemps Ridley is a carnivore and its favorite food is blue crabs. They also eat jellyfish, clams, fish, and mussels. It is estimated that it takes about seven to fifteen years for the turtle to mature. Both male and female Kemps Ridley will meet off the beach to mate. The females will remain just offshore and crawl onto the beaches only under certain conditions: high surf and strong winds from the Northeast between April and June.

When there were thousand of them, the females all nested on the beach within hours of each other, then returned to the water. These mass nesting’s are called arribadas (derived from the Spanish word for arrivals). They occur several times a season. What the mysterious cues are that finally lure the Kemp’s Ridley to the shore, and its significance, are not well understood. Today with only a few hundred females left, the arribadas are fitful and small, and many turtles nest singly. Furthermore the Kemps Ridley nests during the day, not at night as other turtles do.

A young sea turtle is called a Hatchling. A sea turtle never sees its mother or father. After the female lays her eggs she returns to the water and does not go back to the nest. Once hatched each young sea turtle is on its own. These hatchlings face many dangers on the beach and in the ocean. Once in the ocean, they will spend the rest of their lives there, with the females coming out only to lay their eggs in the sand.

The hatchlings break through their eggshells on their own, using a special tooth called a caruncle. This tooth falls out shortly afterward. The eggs are not hard-shelled like chicken eggs but are softer and leathery feeling. Amazingly, the temperature of the sand will determine whether a baby turtle will be male or female. The hotter the sand, the more eggs will be females, the cooler the sand, the more will be males.

Once they leave the egg, the young turtles spend up to forty eight hours underground absorbing their egg-yolk sacs. Then they begin to struggle toward the surface of the beach. At this moment they are the most vulnerable to predators on the beach. Fortunately nature has provided these creatures with some sort of protection. On a sunny day, they may get too hot and stop moving. When things cool down in the evening, they will start to move again. As a result, they will leave in the darkness, where it is safer.

As they enter the sea, these omnivores will feed on almost anything they can find.. In there early years, they swim quite a lot but are mostly swept around by sea currents in the open ocean. The sea turtles will not travel far from their feeding ground until they have reached sexual maturity. Since juveniles never leave the water during this stage of their lives, little is known about them.

Green sea turtles are not named for their green coloration ( they are commonly olive-brown with dark streaks) but for the color of their body fat. Now, Chelonia mydas as it is scientifically called is unique in many ways, just as the other species. Its name first of, Chelonia mydas, literally means “turtle from the sea”. It is also the best known sea turtle to Americans because it can be found in the east in the waters along all gulf coast states, north to long Island Sound, and south to the U.S Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and in the west off California and Hawaii.

The edge of a green sea turtle carapace is smooth or slightly wavy. A small, yet distinguishing trait is the single pair of elongate prefrontal scales on the upper snout; most of the other species have them divided into four prefrontal scutes. The underside (plastron) tends to be white in the young and yellowish in adults. The jaws are used primarily for grazing on sea grasses, are not as beak like as the loggerheads, and have serrated surfaces. The paddle-shaped flippers each have only a single claw.
Green sea turtles are known for their grace in the water, their beautiful shells, and their big gentle eyes. Unfortunately for them, humans have also long found them to be utterly delicious. It is the animals green fat ( which is made from a steady diet of algae and sea grass) and muscle that can boo cooked into turtle soup and steak. For that and many other reasons, green sea turtles are endangered.
That is really unfortunate, because at one time, green turtles were among the most abundant of sea turtles, and were found literally in the millions between North Carolina and Argentina. Now, lets move on to what the turtles actually eat, because they have quite the unique diet. As hatchlings and juveniles they will dine happily on jellyfish. Once they grow older, they begin to consume sea grasses and algae. As adults, they are exclusively vegetarians.

Green sea turtles typically hangout under rocks and coral ledges in relatively shallow waters. They prefer to graze on young plant grown, if possible. Because they have a low protein diet overall, their grown is slow. They may not mature until they are 20 or thirty years of age.
In some regions, green sea turtles mate very close to their nesting beach, in other regions, it may occur hundreds of miles apart. The hatchlings usually measure about two inches in length. Nesting will occur, typically from June through November.

Green turtles are true ocean migrates, Their incredible homing and nesting instincts are best illustrated by the fact that they feed off the coast of Brazil. Green sea turtles are truly amazing animals, and much should be done to see to it that they stay that way.

If there was beauty prize for turtles, the Hawksbill would be Miss Universe. Its beautiful shell has always been highly sought after for its lustrous tortoiseshell jewelry and other ornaments. The shell is so beautiful that it has been harvested by everyone from Egyptians to the Romans, ancient Chinese, Arabs, and American Indians. Thankfully though, plastic imitations of tortoiseshells have largely replaced the real thing.

The carapace of the Hawksbill is amber-colored with streaks of yellow or reddish and blackish brown. The black shields are translucent when removed from the shell. They also hold a high polish. The Hawksbill is of only modest size: its carapace is normally under three feet and the adults average 100 – 120 pounds. The largest Hawksbill ever recorded was a 280 pound animal taken at Grand Cayman.

The Hawksbill gained its name from its jaw, although the beak, while certainly beak like does not hook like that of a raptor. All sea turtles have horny beaks, but the hawksbills head is so narrow that it has a particularly bird-like aspect. The Hawksbills paddle shaped front flippers each have two claws.

The turtle will mature at about 80 pounds; and less in some parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Living throughout the Caribbean, Hawksbills are rarely found north of Florida and are scarce even in Florida. The best way to see the Hawksbill is during the day.

These turtles consume both sea grasses and small animals, but their favorite meal appears to be sponges. Because sponges are made from numerous small glasslike slivers its not quite clear how the hawksbill can gain much from, or even tolerate such a diet. But then again, the huge leatherback also eats solely watery jellyfish, a mystery too.

The nesting behavior of the Hawksbill is generally similar to that of the green turtle, and the two sometimes share nesting beaches. Yet, hawksbills have the ability to nest where green turtles and others can not. These turtles are able to climb over rocks and debris that would turn over other turtles. They move quite briskly on land , and “walk” rather than “lunge forward”.

Overall Hawksbill populations are extremely reduced, and the nests are uncommon. Scientist also know less about them then any other of the species that nest within the U.S.