Adult Green Turtles can weigh more than 150 kg. Once hatchlings (baby turtles) reach the sea, only the females will ever return to the land again when they come to lay their eggs as adults.
Common name: Green Turtle
Scientific name: Chelonia mydas
Photo: R. W. G. Jenkins/Nature Focus, Australian Museum
There are a number of the dangers to turtles from fishing. What can you find out about them?
Reptiles
Green Turtle
Green Turtles live in the seas and coasts around Australia, mostly in tropical waters.
This baby Green Turtle has just hatched out of its egg and is making its way down the beach to the sea.
Young Green Turtles eat tiny marine animals. Adult turtles eat seagrasses, seaweeds and mangrove fruits.
Green Turtles use their senses of smell and sight to find food.
Young turtles float together near seaweed. They catch small crabs and shrimps in their mouth and swallow them whole. Adult turtles use their sharp, serrated jaws to tear off pieces of seagrass and seaweed to swallow.
Sharks and fish eat Green Turtles. Crabs and birds, especially sea gulls, eat hatchlings.
Green Turtles swim with their flippers when in the water. They move slowly on land using their flippers in a rowing action.
Every two to eight years Green Turtles come ashore and lay up to one hundred round eggs at a time. When they hatch young Green Turtles look after themselves.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2003
