Green Sea Turtle with Freediver

By Tommy Schultz

Piece description from the artist

Green sea turtles are unique among sea turtles in that they are primarily herbivores, eating mostly seagrasses and algae. This diet is what gives their cartilage and fat a greenish color (not their shells), which is where their name comes from. Marine turtles are found in most of the world’s oceans, apart from cold polar seas. They tend to spend their lives in relatively shallow continental shelf waters. Once mature, male turtles never leave the sea, but females come ashore to lay eggs – typically on the same sandy beach where they themselves hatched. The female turtles will lay 100-125 eggs per nest and will nest multiple times, about two weeks apart, over several months. As soon as the eggs hatch (roughly 2 months later), the hatchlings dig out of their nest. This process generally takes a few days. Once they emerge, the tiny turtles hurry to the sea and make their way offshore into the open ocean. Sea turtles face many threats, but those that survive the trek from beach to sea and become adults can live to be decades old.