Sea Turtles

Sea Turtles are one of my favorite animals! One of the best places to go to learn about sea turtles is the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. It is owned by a doctor that rescues and rehabilitates sea turtles on the beautiful Jekyll Island. They have programs that you can attend including Sunrise Turtle Walks and a Ride with Dawn Patrol. These programs as well as the Behind the Scenes Tour need to be scheduled in advance on their website. The Sea Turtle Center has a program called Scote’s School. This is a program for teachers and parents to learn more about the ocean and the creatures living in it!

Did you know that using a flashlight on the beach can be distracting to sea turtles trying to nest and sea turtle hatchlings making their way to the ocean? It is important to keep flashlights off or use a ‘turtle safe’ light, red in color, sea turtles can not see the wavelength of the color red.

Did you know that female sea turtles often nest close to the beach where they were born. They commonly lay about 2-8 nests per season with about a hundred eggs in each nest.

Baby sea turtles use an ‘egg tooth’ to chip away at the egg shell and hatch out. When leaving the nest they follow the moon and the reflection of it on the water to make it out to the ocean. They then head to the Sargassum Sea. They float on the seaweed there and eat on organisms within the seaweed until they are old enough to mate.

Sea turtles can be found in most oceans except for in the polar regions. All species of sea turtles are found in the waters off of the US. When a female turtle is ready to lay her eggs she will return to a  beach near where she was born. While the males tend to stay at sea the rest of their lives.

Sea turtles main diet is fish, jellyfish, crabs and algea.

There are 6 species of sea turtles:· Leatherback Sea Turtle· Green Sea Turtle· Hawksbill Sea Turtle· Loggerhead Sea Turtle· Olive Ridley Sea Turtle· Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle· Flatback Sea TurtleSea Turtles are on the endangered species list and a protected species.