Turtles
From coraldigest
Sea Turtles
General
Evolution
Distribution
Behavior and Ecology
Habitat
- Fairly shallow waters inside reefs, bays, and inlets
- Attracted to abundance of marine grass and algae
- Nesting requires open beaches with minimal disturbance [1]
Life Cycle
- Nesting season varies, occurs nocturnally at 2,3,4 year intervals
- May lay as many as 9 clutches in a nesting season
- Clutches range from 75-200 eggs
- Incubation ranges from 45-75 days
- Temperature affects incubation range and sex of hatchlings
- Strong nesting fidelity – green sea turtles [1]
Orientation
Diet
- Hatchlings eat a variety of plants and animals
- Adults feed almost exclusively on sea-grasses and marine algae
Relationships with Humans
- Hunting history
- Hawksbill – endangered
- Green – endangered in FL and Mexico, threatened everywhere else
Importance in Ecosystems
- Maintaining healthy seagrass beds and coral reefs
- Increase productivity and nutrient content of seagrass bladeswhen grazing
- Decreasing supply of nitrogen
- Hawksbills especially play a key role in managing the diversity of coral reefs by limiting the growth of sponges
- Balancing marine food webs
- Facilitating nutrient cycling
Threats
- Desired for flesh and shell Cite error: Closing
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Conservation Efforts
- Hard to monitor the effectiveness of conservation efforts because only nests are being observed – no idea of whole population status due to wide range and limited ability to track populations aside from nesting
- US Endangered Species Act – prohibits hunting of sea turtles and reduces incidental losses from shrimp trawling and development [2]
- Turtle Excluder Devices – a grid of bars with an opening at either end of the net, catches larger animals and ejects them through the opening while still catching the smaller animals ie: shrimp [3]