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Green sea turtle

Chelonia mydas

Photo by lori.tas
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

The green sea turtle possesses a flattened body covered by a large, teardrop-shaped carapace and a pair of large, paddle-like flippers. It is usually lightly colored, although parts of the carapace can be almost black in the eastern Pacific. Unlike other members of its family, such as the hawksbill sea turtle and loggerhead sea turtle, C. mydas is mostly herbivorous. The adults commonly inhabit shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various species of seagrasses.

Habitat:

Mackay Reef, Great Barrier Reef Queensland, Australia.

Notes:

Turtles of this size have few predators, aside from very large sharks, and are accordingly relaxed in their reef homes. The ones at MacKay reef were very used to snorkelers and let us get quite close to them before leisurely swimming away.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)

Beautiful picture, and brilliant to see so many as well! Thanks for sharing with us. :)
Thanks Alice. The sea turtles were probably the highlight of that day - we saw at least six, just hanging out on the reef.
Spotting of the day! "Green sea turtles are one of the few species so ancient that they watched the dinosaurs become extinct." http://facebook.com/projectnoah/posts/147101422036416 http://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/94976053994463232
I've been adding some videos to my MacKay reef spottings, like this one. They're not high quality but at least they show how the critters move underwater.
Photographed
PublishedMay 28, 2011

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