Quick Facts
- Type
- Reptile
- Size
- 1–1.2 m shell length
- Weight
- 110–190 kg
- Habitat
- Tropical and subtropical coastal seas
- Diet
- Seagrass and algae as adults
- Active Time
- Active by day (diurnal)
- Lifespan
- Up to 60–70 years or more
Field Notes
- Adult green sea turtles are mostly vegetarian, grazing on seagrass and algae.
- Females often return to the very beach where they hatched to lay their eggs.
- They can hold their breath for hours while resting underwater.
About the Green Sea Turtle
The green sea turtle is a large marine reptile found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. It is named not for its shell but for the greenish fat beneath it, a result of its largely plant-based adult diet of seagrass and algae. Powerful flippers make it a graceful, far-ranging swimmer, capable of migrating thousands of kilometers between feeding grounds and the beaches where it hatched. Females return to those natal beaches to lay eggs. Long-lived but slow to mature, green turtles are endangered and protected across much of their range.
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