Ocean Life: Green Sea Turtle - Adaptation

Speed & Diving

With their efficient body shape, Green Sea Turtles have been known to move through the water as fast as 35mph. When active, sea turtles swim to the surface to breathe every few minutes. When sleeping or resting, adult sea turtles can remain underwater for more than 2 hours. Turtles are capable of containing higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in their blood than most other breathing animals. This enables them to use their oxygen more efficiently and stay underwater longer. Juvenile sea turtles have not developed this ability and must sleep afloat at the water's surface.

Feeding

Juvenile Green Sea Turtles are omnivorous, eating plants and animals. Their diet consists of jellyfish, shrimp, plankton and algae. Adult Green Sea Turtles are primarily herbivores, eating only plants, but they have been observed eating jellyfish and other easy-to-catch marine life. They feed on nearshore sea grass and algae pastures. Similar to cows, Green Sea Turtles depend on bacteria in their guts for digestion of plant material.

Distribution and Habitat

Green Sea Turtles are distributed throughout the world's oceans between 35 degrees north and south latitude. They are found in the eastern and western hemispheres and nest on beaches throughout the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Green Sea Turtles enjoy warm, tropical and subtropical, shallow water near continental coasts and around islands where the sea grass is plentiful.

Population

There were once several million Green Sea Turtles worldwide. Today, fewer than 200,000 nesting females are thought to remain. In Hawaii in 1992, the estimate of mature female green turtles associated with the French Frigate Shoals was set at roughly 750.