The Green Sea Turtle is a large sea turtle wich grows to 1-1.5 m in length and can weigh 200 kg. Green Sea Turtles can be found throughout tropical, subtropical and some warmer temperate waters. Females lay their eggs on traditional nesting beaches, but otherwise this species is entirely marine.

Several populations of this species exist, and all of them are endangered. One actual estimation says there are 90.000 female sea turtles in the world oceans (see here). Green Sea Turtles have long been used as a meat source by many different peoples, reducing their numbers. They are also caught for their shells, leathery skin, and fat.

Other threats to the species’ survival include habitat destruction on their beaches, being caught as by-catch by fishermen (see here for an actual report about a turtle slaughter in Costa Rica), egg poaching, trash pollution in the oceans, and artificial lighting on nesting beaches, which confuses the hatchlings and lures them toward roads instead of toward the sea where they should go.

Green Sea Turtle populations exist also in Costa Rica, on both coasts. The nesting places are protected as National Parks.

For more information visit also Wikipedia or read this article about Costa Rica conservation projects.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 8:51 am and is filed under Beaches, nature & places in Costa Rica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.