Swimming mainly in the waters of Florida and off the coast of Mexico, Chelonia Mydas, Green Sea Turtle, can grow to the maximum size of 4 feet and weigh up to 440 pounds. It has a heart shaped shell, small head, and single clawed flippers. This turtle can be found in several different countries and can be found in small numbers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and in larger numbers in Florida. Belonging to the Cheloniidae (turtle) family of the Animal Kingdom, the Green Sea Turtle prefers fairly shallow waters like in reefs, bays, and inlets. These sea turtles bodies are highly adapted to life in the ocean, and their shells are lighter and more streamlined which allows them to gracefully glide through the water for long distances, in a relatively short amount of time. They have been known to glide through the water as fast as 35 mph. The hatchling green turtle’s diet consists of a variety of plants and animals, but the adult green turtle’s diet consists of exclusively on seagrasses and marine algae. They also prefer open beaches with very little disturbance for their nesting sites to lay their eggs. The nesting season varies with the locality. In the Southeastern U.S., it is roughly June through September. Nesting occurs nocturnally at 2, 3, or 4-year intervals.
Over the past several years sea turtles have long been hunted because their bodies can be used for a variety of things, their shells have been used to make jewelry and ornaments, their skin to make small leather goods, their meat and eggs for food, and their fat for oil. Another cause of them dying is due to the fact that incidental catch, which is where commercial shrimp fishers use nets that trap and drown more than 10,000 sea turtles each year. Another main cause to them becoming endangered is due to litter and marine debris, especially when they become entangled or the litter is mistaken as food and eaten, because plastics can extremely harmful as they are not easily digested and remain in the turtle's stomachs for long periods of time, releasing toxic substances. Due to all of these dangerous causes this is why the Green Sea Turtles have become endangered and threatened.
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