sea turtle travel

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How turtle-watching tours actually help conservation

From data collection to caring for injured turtles, get hands-on in one of Earth's most important sea turtle conservation programs.

Sea turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, having survived multiple extinction events over 100 million years. But the cascading effects of human activity have caused rapid population decline, and now six of the seven sea turtle species are considered threatened.

There are glimmers of hope, through the dedicated work of conservationists and community-based organizations around the world. It’s what has made Trinidad and Tobago —a two-island nation at the southern end of the Caribbean archipelago—one of the most important leatherback rookeries in the Western Hemisphere, and the second-largest, after Gabon .

Each season, the islands’ conservation teams depend on visitors to help give these creatures a fighting chance against the multitude of threats to their survival—including habitat destruction, climate change-induced reproductive issues, and bycatch offshore.

The turtle-watching tours they run provide vital revenue to fund monitoring and patrols; and volunteers—including travelers from overseas—power that work in the field.

“It’s literally our passion—nobody gets into this to make money,” says Giancarlo Lalsingh, who’s spent 30 years in local conservation, including over a decade at Save Our Sea Turtles   (SOS Tobago). “It’s really tough. But the outcome of all that work is so worth it.”

Regardless of ability or experience, there’s a way for everyone to aid new generations of sea turtles survive against the odds. Here’s what you need to know about the threats these animals are facing, and how you can get involved to help.

A six-decade success story

Trinidad and Tobago is perhaps best known for steel drums, calypso, limbo, and Caribbean-style carnival. But in the quiet of forests and beaches, a different kind of enchantment awaits.

At night during nesting season (sometimes, but very rarely, in daylight), turtles begin to emerge from the sea. Large leatherbacks stun onlookers—they can grow to 2,000 pounds and 10 feet in length. Nesting mothers heave themselves onto land, first carving out their nests, then laying 80 to a hundred eggs before laboriously camouflaging the clutches in sand before slowly making their way back to the sea.

( What a   fossilized egg on a prehistoric turtle revealed inside .)

Nesting mothers will make multiple visits to the beach over the season—up to 10 for leatherbacks and five for hawksbills. Roughly two months later, little hatchlings burrow their way out of the sand and dash for the open ocean.

Fewer than one in a thousand will make it to sexual maturity 25 to 30 years later. Those females that do will make the long trek back to the beaches on which they were born to birth another generation.

Five sea turtle species visit Trinidad and Tobago’s waters: leatherbacks, hawksbills , greens , loggerheads , and olive ridleys . The first three nest across both islands—primarily on Trinidad’s north and east coasts and in smaller numbers around Tobago through nesting season (March to August for leatherbacks, and May to November for hawksbills).

During nesting months, more than 6,000 turtles (and as many as 10,000) will lay on the islands’ beaches. The greatest concentration of them will be at Grande Riviere—a beach less than a mile long in a remote village on Trinidad’s north coast, and the densest   leatherback nesting ground in the world. On a busy night in the peak months (May and June), up to 500 turtles can nest on this beach alone; and up to 400 at Matura, a larger beach on the rural northeast coast.

“The number of leatherbacks nesting there—it’s almost like a mass nesting event,” says Vanessa Bezy , a National Geographic Explorer, marine biologist, and wildlife conservationist from the U.S. who is working to protect sea turtles in Costa Rica . “Where I am, leatherbacks are critically endangered. I think there’s only a couple hundred left in this part of the Pacific.”

Volunteers are responsible for making Trinidad and Tobago’s humble turtle conservation a success story on a global scale. They spend untold hours tagging, counting, and measuring nesting mothers; monitoring and sometimes even relocating nests; and helping safeguard the turtles from predators and threats. Their hard work has caused leatherback meat and egg poaching to fall to near zero.

That work began in 1965 through a collaboration between the University of the West Indies and the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club . In 1989, the nation’s Forestry Division developed a co-management partnership with the rural communities where turtles nest, fostering the growth of several community-based organizations that would power the conservation effort in the decades that followed. Twenty-eight of them now comprise the Turtle Village Trust .

This distinctive community-led approach, particularly in Matura and Grande Riviere, has become a model for similar conservation initiatives across the Caribbean, and earned the organizations local and international awards for their work.

While there’s been a 99 percent drop in leatherback populations in nearby French Guiana, and a 90 percent in the Eastern Pacific, Trinidad and Tobago saw local populations rebound significantly in the 1990s, and have gradually declined since. These efforts have been bolstered by the country outlawing turtle hunting in 2011 and declaring sea turtle species as environmentally sensitive in 2014.

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There is still much work to be done. Only a fraction of nesting beaches is actively monitored, leaving a data gap not just with the leatherback but the smaller hawksbill and green turtles, which are the main target of poaching and harvesting for their meat and shells.

( How nearly 5,000 sea turtles were saved from freezing waters in Texas .)

Chronic funding shortfalls, equipment, and worker shortages mean that especially on high-traffic nesting beaches, some turtles return to the ocean without being tagged or recorded. There is even less coverage for offshore monitoring. All the data is key to helping researchers and public policy officials understand turtles’ migration routes; when, where, and how often they nest; how successful their nests are; and key population trends. It helps shape local, regional, and international policy.

“Nesting is just one part of the life cycle,” explains Tomas Diagne , a Senegalese biologist and National Geographic Explorer who works in turtle conservation across Africa . Sea turtles need to travel and reach their nesting ground, he says, and this directs the work he does in trying to limit the bycatch offshore. It’s the most pressing global issue for sea turtles, along with other drivers of population decline: plastic pollution; coastal development; and the effects of the climate crisis (from habitat loss to the heat-induced alteration of natural sex ratios).

One of the easiest ways people can help is through an app called TURT , a project of SOS Tobago and SpeSeas , where users can report sea turtle sightings on land or at sea. Michelle Cazabon-Mannette, one of SpeSeas’ directors (along with National Geographic Explorer Diva Amon, of Trinidad), says divers are one of the key groups they are targeting with the app, to help with offshore monitoring.

( How artificial intelligence is helping fight against illegal wildlife trade .)

But most of the islands’ data is collected during nesting and entered into organizational and national databases. Much of it is funded by turtle-watching tours, which are an accessible way to experience the turtles up close.

Local and international volunteers, meanwhile, are the backbone of the monitoring work. Nature Seekers welcomes the greatest number of volunteers from overseas. While they and other organizations welcome operational support for things such as data entry and marketing, the greatest need is in the field, which can be grueling.

“You’re going out there at night, you’re walking long distances, you’re exposed to the elements, to mosquitoes and sand flies and rain,” says Lalsingh. “It’s really difficult, physically taxing work.”

Assignments may vary based on experience, levels of commitment, and physical fitness. But after training, field volunteers will almost invariably begin making sure nesting mothers can access the beach and nest successfully, gathering data about the ones that do, and looking out for injured or sick turtles.

Some turtles arrive injured or impeded in some way—with ropes or fishing gear wrapped around them, flippers damaged or missing, or with other war wounds from their lives at sea (one had been impaled by a spear from a billfish). Volunteers then need to work quickly to render some emergency first aid, whether it’s disentangling, cleaning wounds, or helping dig nests.

Volunteers wait for the mother to enter the critical “trance” state, when she is consumed by the laying process and becomes minimally aware and reactive to activity around her. Then, volunteers get to work measuring, scanning tags on returning turtles (sometimes replacing or upgrading them), or applying tags on new ones. Making contact at any other time could compromise the entire nesting process.

Nests continue to be monitored all season, and volunteers work to ensure as many babies make it safely to the sea as possible. When there are hatchlings who can’t quite dig out of the nest on their own, volunteers will do a nest excavation, give the hatchlings some extra care, and then release them into the sea. And as some turtles choose inhospitable spots for nests—beach erosion is a major threat—volunteers may carefully relocate the nest, sometimes to an artificial hatchery.

“After 32 years, I’m still in awe of this gentle, magnificent creature,” says Suzan Lakhan-Baptiste, Managing Director of Nature Seekers. “I would want the world to experience it—to engage those who want to really make a difference.”

How you can help

Related topics.

• SEA TURTLES
• HAWKSBILL SEA TURTLES
• LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLES
• LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE
• GREEN SEA TURTLE
• OLIVE RIDLEY SEA TURTLE

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How Far Do Sea Turtles Travel?

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Dr. Partho Kumar Shaha Veterinarian (DVM)

The information is current and up-to-date in accordance with the latest veterinarian research.

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Sea turtles are the ancient mariners of the sea. They have survived in this world for 65 million years because they constantly move around to survive in the vast sea. Sea turtles begin their journey from birth and continue to travel until death. So, how far do sea turtles travel? 

Sea turtles are famous for their migrating habits. They can travel thousands of miles in the sea in their lifetime. However, the migration for different sea turtles is not the same. Some travel far from their birthplace, others not so much. 

In this article, I will talk about how far different species of sea turtles can travel and why they migrate so far away from the land. So, let’s dive in!

When Do Sea Turtles Begin Traveling? 

As mentioned above, sea turtles are on the move although their life . Their lifelong journey begins with the first frenzied swim to the sea. 

Thousands of female sea turtles come to the shore during the nesting season . They make nests, lay their eggs, and leave the spot as soon as the work is done. After a long incubation period, hatchlings emerge from the fertile eggs. 

The land is not a safe place for sea turtle babies. So, right after birth, their instincts tell them to reach the sea. The first 48 hours starting from the emergence from the nest, is critical for baby sea turtles. While trying to reach the water, many hatchlings become victims of predators in the seashore. 

After many hardships, the surviving sea turtle hatchlings reach the water. Unfortunately, even there, they face predators like dolphins, sharks, and killer whales. This way, about 50 to 60 percent of sea turtle babies and juveniles die every year. The rest of the sea turtles must constantly move around to stay safe in the sea. 

Once the male sea turtles get into the sea, they never return to the land. But when the female hatchling mature, they return to their nesting place to lay their eggs. 

How Far Do Sea Turtles Migrate? 

Scientists can track how far a sea turtle migrates thanks to modern satellites. Sea turtles spend almost all of their life in the sea. They hunt, sleep, and even mate in the sea. They are constantly in search of warmer water. Thus, they swim thousands of miles every year. However, the traveling habits vary slightly among different species of sea turtles. 

For example, leatherback sea turtles are excellent swimmers. They can travel up to 19,300 km (12,000 miles) in a year. Leatherbacks are constantly searching for jellyfish and will travel a great length to hunt their favorite food. 

The second sea turtle species to swim far distances are the loggerheads. Satellites have found loggerheads traveling 13,000 km (8,000 miles) per year. 

Compared to leatherbacks and loggerheads, green turtles do not travel far from their birthplace. The highest traveling record for green turtles is 3.979 km (2,472 miles). Other species of sea turtles migrate to shorter distances from their nests. 

Female sea turtles travel more than male sea turtles. That is because they typically return to the shore where they were born. 

Where Do Sea Turtles Travel? 

The migration habits among different sea turtles are not the same. In fact, it varies in the same species. While some sea turtles travel around their birthplace, others may travel far distances. 

Here are some locations sea turtles travel to during migration: 

Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) 

Leatherback sea turtles are famous for being one of the most highly migratory animals in the world. They are seen 3,000 miles away from their nesting grounds. They travel from the Caribbean shores to the US East Coast to Canada. Leatherbacks from South Asia can travel to California and then to Alaskan shores. 

Many scientists believe that the light pink spot on top of the leatherbacks helps to send light as signals to their brains. Hence, leatherbacks can keep track of their journey and return to their nesting ground. 

Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) 

Loggerheads hatched on the coasts of Japan and Australia. Then they travel across the Pacific Ocean to Baja, California, Mexico, Peru, and Chile. They travel 8,000 miles in search of food. When they mature, they return to their nesting area for mating and reproduction.  

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

Green sea turtles are the only sea turtle species that are herbivores. Their main diets are seagrass and algae. Green sea turtles are found worldwide. They prefer to live in subtropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Green sea turtles prefer to limit their migration between the nesting and feeding grounds. However, some Green sea turtles are found to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean. They may travel from the middle of the South Atlantic to the Brazilian coasts in search of food. 

Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata)

The hawksbill turtle inhabits Australia’s tropical northern and eastern shores, from central Western Australia to southern Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef is part of their primary feeding area that stretches down the east coast.

Hawksbills are not enthusiastic travelers. Solomon Island hawksbills can travel 800 to 1,650 km (500 to 1000 miles) between their nesting area to foraging areas off Australia. Hawaiian hawksbills travel even shorter distances and prefer to stay near the nesting islands.

Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii)

Kemp’s ridleys nest in the Gulf of Mexico. They travel hundreds and thousands of miles in the sea following two routes. One route leads them to northern Mississippi. The other takes them southward to Campeche bank. They prefer the shallow waters where they can dive to hunt crabs and eat seagrass. 

Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea)

Olive ridleys are found globally, especially in tropical coastal areas such as the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They live on the shores of West Africa and South America. In Eastern parts of the Pacific, olive ridleys nest in Southern California to the Northern coasts of Chile. 

Primarily, olive ridleys stay near the shores. But they have been seen about 3862 km (2.400 miles) from the shore. 

Flatback (Natator depressa)

Although Flatbacks are excellent swimmers, they do not travel deep in the sea. They stay in the coastal regions of northwestern, northern, and northeastern parts of Australia, where the water is shallow. 

How Much Do Sea Turtles Travel in a Lifetime? 

Every year, sea turtles can travel thousands of miles. So, how much do they travel in their lifetime? 

Sea turtles live a long time. The average life expectancy of sea turtles is 20 to 30 years. Some even live up to 40 years. During their lifetime, they are constantly on the move. It is difficult to say exactly how many miles sea turtles travel in their lifestyles. 

A leatherback can travel 10,000 miles in a year. On the other hand, a Hawkbill travels only 1000 miles. Hopefully, you can do the rest of the math. 

Why Do Sea Turtles Travel? 

Migrating to the sea is crucial for all species of sea turtles. Sea turtle hatchlings are small and vulnerable. They become easy targets for predators on the shore and even in the deep sea. 

The most common predators for baby sea turtles on the land are ants, crabs, lizards, birds, dogs, raccoons, wild pigs, and coyotes. Thus, the sea turtles begin their journey of survival. They crawl to the shallow water of the sea, where they are safer. 

Besides, sea turtles adapt to the sea quite fast. In the water, they are fast enough to escape many predators. They also get plenty of food in the sea. However, to sustain their life, sea turtles must travel around the sea to hunt food. 

Many species of sea turtles migrate far from their home. They feed and become mature in the sea. After years when they become sexually mature, they travel close to their birth land. Male sea turtles wait for the female sea turtles to arrive on the coastline. They never get out of the water. 

After mating, female sea turtles visit the beach to lay their fertile eggs. Once they finish laying eggs, they return to the sea and continue their epic journey. 

Unfortunately, the life of sea turtles is now endangered . Scientific research has proven that only one or two of a thousand newly hatched sea turtles can make it to adult life. The growing number of plastic waste on the shore and in the sea has made it difficult for sea turtles to travel around the sea. 

Many sea turtles get entangled in the garbage and drown in the sea. Besides, sea turtles have always been the target of many poachers. 

Conclusion 

So, how far do sea turtles travel? Hopefully, you have got your answer by now. Sea turtles travel thousands of miles in a year. They can travel hundreds of miles away from the shore in a day. Migration is much needed for sea turtles as they spend most of their life in the sea. By traveling, sea turtlers manage to get food and keep their lives safe from predators. 

About Author

Muntaseer Rahman started keeping pet turtles back in 2013. He also owns the largest Turtle & Tortoise Facebook community in Bangladesh. These days he is mostly active on Facebook .

This site is owned and operated by Muntaseer Rahman. TheTurtleHub.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.

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Sea Turtles

Cheloniidae and dermatochelyidae, introduction, anatomy, diversity & evolution, ecology and behavior, human impacts & solutions, research and technology, cultural connections.

Often considered the most majestic of the turtle family, the sea turtle is a large, ocean-going reptile known for its gentle nature and long lifespan. Swimmers, snorkelers and divers revel in seeing these stunning creatures glide by effortlessly through the sea. Though often associated with the tropics, sea turtles are actually found in all of the world’s oceans except for the polar seas. Sea turtles have been revered by humans for millennia. In fact, many creation stories in various world cultures feature tales of the world being built on the back of a sea turtle.

Today, there are seven species of sea turtles in existence, and most are listed as at least vulnerable to extinction under the IUCN’s Red List. These ancient reptiles, which have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, may yet disappear if we do not act to conserve them.

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Reptile of the sea.

Sea turtles are adapted to live in the ocean, with some unique features that help them to survive in the marine environment. As reptiles , they require air to breathe and land to lay their eggs. However, the majority of their lives are spent underwater.

Unlike their freshwater relatives, the head and limbs of sea turtles are fixed outside the shell and cannot retract into the shell. This distinctive feature, along with a streamlined shell, makes them more hydrodynamic in the water than their land-based counterparts, allowing them to maneuver easily through their saltwater habitat.

Sea turtles are generally not extremely fast swimmers. Usually, they cruise at around 0.9 to 5.8 mph (1.4 to 9.3 km/h), but have been found to swim up to 22 mph (35 km/hr) when frightened. To help them efficiently power their bodies through water, sea turtles have long flippers instead of the webbed feet of their freshwater counterparts. The large and strong front flippers act like paddles to propel them through the water, while the smaller back flippers function as rudders to help them steer. In females, the hind flippers have another purpose as well—they are used to dig an egg chamber in the sand when they come ashore to nest.

The seven sea turtle species are part of a group of about 100 living marine reptile species in the world. Living in salty ocean water is not easy and many marine organisms have special adaptations in order to survive in the excessive salt of their environment. If sea turtles had a salt concentration in their body the same as their seawater surroundings, it would be lethal. When eating, they ingest a large amount of salty seawater. To get rid of this excess salt, sea turtles have large glands by their eyes that release salt in higher concentrations than the surrounding ocean water. These salt glands are why many people who observe sea turtles on land believe that the animals are crying . The leatherback sea turtle has extremely large salt glands compared to other species; their glands are more than twice the size of their brains. They require such large salt glands because of their preferred diet of jellyfish. Since jellies are composed of mostly seawater, the leatherback ingests much more salt while feeding than any other sea turtle species.

Sea turtles cannot breathe underwater, but they can hold their breath for long periods of time—between 4 to 7 hours when resting. While holding their breath, their heart rate slows significantly to conserve oxygen—up to nine minutes can pass between heartbeats. Because of this, sea turtles can stay underwater for an extended period of time when not stressed.

Their breath-holding abilities allow them to dive deep in the ocean to find food. Most turtles can dive to depths of up to 290 m (960 ft). However, one species of sea turtle—the leatherback—can dive over 1,000 m (3,000 ft)! The maximum depth ever recorded for a sea turtle dive was a leatherback that dove 1,200 m (3937 ft). Leatherbacks are able to do this because of their adaptations for deep diving. Unlike the other species of sea turtles, leatherbacks have a flexible shell that absorbs nitrogen and collapsible lungs that allow them to compress themselves while diving to cope with the pressure change. The turtles have large stores of oxygen in their blood and muscles and a drastically slowed heart rate to conserve oxygen while diving.

The warm blood coming from the heart is able to heat the cooled blood returning from the extremities due to the anatomy of the blood vessels. 

Reptiles are ectothermic, meaning they rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature, and sea turtles are no exception. It is therefore surprising that unlike other sea turtles, leatherbacks are cold-adapted. They can migrate to cold water to hunt their prey without getting cold-stunned . The leatherback achieves this feat with counter-current heat exchange. This system runs warm blood from their inner bodies out to their extremities next to the cold blood running back inwards. The two blood temperatures participate in heat exchange and, therefore, the cold blood is warmed before re-entering the body core. Leatherbacks also retain warmth because of their dark color and layers of fatty tissue and oil that act as heat absorbers and insulation. The leatherback has a much higher metabolism than other sea turtles; their huge muscles create a lot of heat when they are active.

The abilities to function in cold water and to make every breath taken as efficient as possible, allow the leatherback to dive to very great depths. They can carry twice the amount of oxygen in their blood as other sea turtles and can redirect blood to the brain and heart to make sure their vital organs always have oxygen on deep, cold dives.

Researchers don’t know exactly why leatherback sea turtles dive to such depths, but a 2008 study suggested that the dives function as a sort of reconnaissance mission. The turtles primarily eat jellyfish that migrate to the deep ocean during the day. Leatherbacks could be using deep dives to scout out where the jellies are in order to be in the right spot at nightfall when the jellyfish return to the surface and make for a tasty meal for the waiting leatherback.

A Tough Shell

A sea turtle’s most noticeable feature is its shell. The top of the shell is called the carapace and the bottom is called the plastron. The carapace and plastron consist of two separate layers. One layer is composed of flattened bone plates that grow between and fuse with the ribs as the turtle grows. The second layer is the keratin scales (or scutes) that protect the sea turtle and prevent water loss. Scutes are firm and flexible without being brittle.

There are different kinds of scutes that vary based on their location on the turtle’s body. The scales sometimes overlap, but don’t always. Scientists can actually identify sea turtle species by the number and pattern of scutes along with the shape of the shell and scales on their head.

One species—the leatherback sea turtle—has a unique rubbery shell that is not made of keratin scutes like other sea turtle species. Instead, they have a semi-flexible carapace covered with a waxy, leathery skin. Beneath it is a blubbery fat layer full of oil, and embedded in the fat layer are thousands of small bone plates that give the carapace its strength. The shell has seven distinct ridges (called keels) on the carapace. These help to streamline the leatherback’s momentum on its deep dives.

The shell can do more than protect and streamline. Many other ocean organisms use sea turtle shells as a home or a feeding station. Small organisms, called epibionts, can live on the surface of a sea turtle’s shell . They can include barnacles, algae, and even small crabs. In fact, more than 100 different epibionts have been identified living on loggerhead sea turtle shells. If a sea turtle gets too many hitchhikers on its shell, it can become weighed down and have a harder time moving. Thankfully for sea turtles, certain fish love to eat the epibionts—the sea turtle gets a cleaning while the specialized fish swim away with a nice meal.

Sensory adaptations help sea turtles survive in the ocean environment.

Sea turtles spend most of their lives submerged in an aquatic environment, but they also can spend significant amounts of time at the surface of the water because they require air to breathe. In addition, new hatchlings and nesting females spend time, however brief, on the beach. Therefore, sea turtles have eyes adapted to see in both water and air. However, their eyes are best adapted for seeing well under the waves.

Humans have a curved cornea that refracts light and helps to see in the air. Corneas lose all ability to refract light when submerged in water, which causes the unfocused view we see when opening eyes while underwater. Underwater, fish have a cornea merely as a protective barrier. All the refractive power of a fish's eye is contained in their lens . Animals such as turtles that spend time in both aquatic and air environments have eyes that combine these two eye types. Sea turtles have flat corneas and a nearly spherical lens adapted to their mostly aquatic lifestyle. Consequently, they are a little nearsighted on land but perfectly suited to seeing under the ocean surface.

Sea turtles also spend time at a variety of depths in the ocean with very different light levels—the deeper the depth, the dimmer the light becomes. Surprisingly, sea turtles seem to have eyes that are specialized for bright light rather than the dim deep water.

In the eye, cells called rods detect movement in dim light conditions and cells called cones detect colored light. Animals that see well in the dark have more rods than cones. Another trait that equips animals to see well in dim light are large eyes with large pupils.

Sea turtles have fairly evenly distributed rods and cones and their eyes are small in comparison to their body size. These traits equip sea turtles to see best in bright light. So, how do sea turtles see when they feed at depth or at night? The answer may lie in their ability to see bioluminescence . The pupil of a sea turtle’s eye is sufficiently big enough to detect the point-source light of bioluminescent prey. This glow is all they need to locate their meal.

A study in 2012 showed that juvenile loggerhead and green sea turtles have the photoreceptor cells that are required to see in color , but not many behavioral studies have been done to test whether they can actually distinguish the colors they see.

Sea turtle ears are much smaller than ours and though not visible on the outside of their head, their ears allow them to hear vibrations in the water. Their ears are covered by a protective layer of skin called the tympanum. Underneath the tympanum is a layer of fat unique to sea turtles; freshwater turtles do not have this feature. Scientists think this layer may act similarly to the way toothed whales’ fatty tissue s can channel low-frequency sounds into the inner ear. A 2014 study  showed that both hatchling and juvenile loggerhead sea turtles hear and respond to low-frequency sounds. This observation suggests that, like some whales, sea turtles are low-frequency specialists. More research needs to be done to further understand how and what sea turtles are hearing.

The bony shell of a sea turtle can actually sense when something touches it. A series of thin nerves run along the shell and detect pressure changes associated with touch. The nerves do not contain pain receptors so scientists do not think sea turtles feel pain when touched on the shell, but these thin nerves could transmit information to other parts of the sea turtle’s body. In addition, researchers and scuba divers have observed sea turtles respond to the stimulation of being touched on the skin of their head and their flippers.

Sea turtles possess an acute sense of smell. It is thought that this well-developed sense of smell, along with vision, plays a role in a sea turtles’ ability to locate prey. Being able to smell prey in murky or dark water would be an invaluable asset to a hungry sea turtle. Smell is also believed to contribute to how female sea turtles find their way back to their home beach to nest (see “Natal Homing” section below).

MAGNETIC SENSE

Sea turtles also have a sense that enables them to detect and utilize the magnetic field of the Earth as a guide, although scientists do not fully understand how their magnetic sensitivity works. In one study , baby loggerhead sea turtles were placed in a large pool of water in a controlled laboratory setting. Researchers varied the magnetic orientation of the pool to observe the hatchlings behavior. When the sea turtles were exposed to simulated magnetic conditions that placed them either north or south of their normal migratory pathway, they reacted by swimming in the direction that put them back on their migratory course. This remarkable magnetic sense provides sea turtles directional information, the same way humans use a magnetic compass, as well as an accurate sense of their location and position on the Earth, helping them orient as they travel vast distances. Magnetic sense functions as a way for sea turtles to orient themselves and navigate to where they want to go.

NATAL HOMING

Female sea turtles migrate thousands of miles, sometimes to the same beach where they were born, in order to nest. This phenomenon is called natal homing . There are two main hypotheses for how sea turtles are able to do this. The first is that sea turtles use Earth's magnetic field to distinguish their global position by latitude and longitude. Navigating by this internal compass would enable a sea turtle to return to the specific location it remembers from when she first entered the water as a newly hatched baby turtle. Another possibility is that sea turtles can imprint or distinctly remember certain characteristics of their home beach, such as a distinctive smell. Scientists think that sea turtles use a combination of these two techniques to find their way back to their birth beach. The use of the magnetic field would get them to the right area of the globe, while the imprinting would help them identify the exact beach.

Sea turtles belong to the Testudine order which includes all turtles, tortoises, and terrapins. There are fourteen families within the order, but sea turtle species are only represented in two of those families—Cheloniidae and Dermatochelyidae—where the seven modern sea turtle species are found. Six sea turtle species—the green, hawksbill, loggerhead, olive ridley, Kemp’s ridley, and flatback—belong to the Cheloniidae family. The one remaining sea turtle species, the leatherback, is in its own separate family—Dermatochelyidae.

Cheloniidae

The Cheloniidae family is comprised of the hard-shelled sea turtles. Their shells are made up of hard keratin scales called scutes.

Green ( Chelonia mydas )- The green sea turtle, which gets its names from the color of its body fat, is the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles. Their carapace can grow to be 2.6 to 4.5 feet long (0.8 to 1.4 m) and they can weigh between 300 and 350 pounds (136 to 159 kg). Adult green sea turtles are the only herbivorous sea turtle; they graze on marine plants and their diet is why their body fat turns green. Their specialized diet means they are the only species with serrated jaws. These serrations help the turtles tear and eat the marine plants that make up their diet. Found in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world, the vegetarian adult turtles tend to stay near the coasts where marine plants are abundant rather than venture into the open ocean. Snorkelers in the tropics are very likely to run into these animals foraging in seagrass meadows. They are listed as endangered on the IUCN’s Red List .

Loggerhead ( Caretta caretta ) - The most common sea turtle in the United States is the Loggerhead. These sea turtles get their name from their huge heads that seem out of proportion to the rest of their body. Adults have large, strong jaws that they use to crush shellfish, their favored prey. The loggerhead is one of the most widespread sea turtles—found in temperate and tropical waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. It is the only sea turtle species to nest outside of the Tropics. Loggerheads can grow to have carapaces of 2.3 to 3.6 feet long (0.7 to 1.1 m) and weigh up to 230 to 350 pounds (104 to 159 kg). They are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN’s Red List .

Hawksbill ( Eretmochelys imbricate ) - The hawksbill sea turtle is named for its hooked, hawk-like beak. Hawksbills are found in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world, but in very low numbers—they are listed under the IUCN Red List as a critically endangered species mainly because they have been traditionally hunted for their beautiful mottled shells for tortoiseshell jewelry and other products. Adults prefer to hang out near coral reefs in order to eat their favorite meal—sponges. Hawksbills are smaller than the green and loggerhead species—their carapace can be between 2.5 to 3 feet (0.8 to 1 meter) and they can weigh up to 100 to 125 pounds (45 to 57 kg).

Olive Ridley ( Lepidochelys olivacea ) - The olive ridley sea turtle gets its name from the color of its carapace. It is a comparatively small sea turtle—its carapace grows to 2 to 2.5 feet (0.6 to 0.8 m) and it only weighs about 85 pounds (39 kg). The olive ridley is the most common sea turtle in the world’s oceans—there are currently about 800,000 nesting females – but much information on this species is still lacking. However, the current population trend is decreasing based on a number of estimates for female nesting and hatchlings, mainly gathered during the great arribadas where thousands of female olive ridleys come ashore together to nest. Olive ridleys spend most of their time in the open ocean feeding at the surface. But they are also known to dive to depths of up to 656 feet (200 meters) in search of food. They are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN’s Red List .

A Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is returned to the ocean.

Kemp’s Ridley ( Lepidochelys kempii ) – In addition to the olive ridley sea turtle, the only other sea turtle species that nests in large arribadas is the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle . The species is named for Richard Kemp, a fisherman who helped discover and describe the species. Kemp’s ridley is the least common sea turtle species in the world’s ocean—there are only about 2,500 nesting females. This small population mainly nests in a single area—the beach at Rancho Nuevo on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico in eastern Mexico. The species is the only sea turtle to regularly nest mostly during the daytime. Kemp’s ridley turtles are mainly found in waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the northwest Atlantic. Like the olive ridley, the Kemp’s ridley is a comparatively small sea turtle species with carapaces about 2 feet (0.6 m) long and a weight of about 70 to 100 pounds (32 to 45 kg). They are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN’s Red List .

F latback ( Natator depressus ) – The flatback sea turtle, named for its distinctive flat shell, spends its life in the waters off Australia and Papua New Guinea, coming to shore to nest in Australia once a year. While most sea turtles spend their first few years swimming in the open or coastal ocean, as juveniles the flatback spends its time in murky water close to shore. It is the only turtle to do so. They eat sponges, shrimp, corals, and other soft prey.  It can weigh up to 200 pounds (91 kg) and its carapace can be 2.5 to 3.2 feet long (0.8 to 1m). Scientists are unsure how many flatbacks exist and are listed as being data deficient on the IUCN’s Red List .

Dermatochelyidae

The Dermatochelyidae family is the leathery-shelled sea turtle family. This family contains one living species—the leatherback sea turtle.

Leatherback ( Dermochelys coriacea )- Leatherbacks do not have scutes making up their shells, but instead have a waxy, leathery skin that covers a fatty layer filled with oil and thousands of tiny bone plates that provide strength to the carapace. These ancient ocean dwellers are built for the deep, open ocean where they spend much of their lives. Their shell is streamlined for deep diving with seven prominent ridges called keels running along their shell from head to tail. The keels help reduce drag and flexible flippers that are very long in relation to their body help to power them rapidly through the water. Leatherbacks primarily eat jellyfish and undertake the deepest dives of all sea turtles. Sometimes they will dive as deep as far as 1,000 m (3280) underwater, however, dives beyond 300 m (984 ft) are extremely rare . deep dives that are likely to scout out their prey (see Anatomy section).

The largest sea turtle species, a leatherback’s carapace can measure 4.3 to 6 feet (1.3 to 1.8 m) in length and the turtle can weigh from 500 to 1,100 pounds (227 to 500 kg). The largest sea turtle ever found was a male leatherback that washed up on the coast of Wales in 1988—the specimen weighed about 2,000 pounds (907 kg). They are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN’s Red List .

Sea turtles have a complicated evolutionary history that researchers are constantly learning more about. All turtles, tortoises, and terrapins, including sea turtles, are in the Testudine order. It was thought for a long time that Testudines were closely related to lizards and tuataras . In 2014, new DNA sequencing techniques allowed scientists to determine turtles are instead closely related to the Archosaurs , a group that includes birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs. This new information has led scientists to place the Testudines and Archosaurs into a newly created clade called Archelosauria.

Eunotosaurus , a reptile who lived about 260 million years ago during the Permian Period , is the earliest known ancestor of modern turtles. This animal had wide, elongated ribs, but had not developed an actual shell. It was also exclusively land-dwelling and had a full set of teeth.

Next in the existing evolutionary timeline is Odontochelys semitestacea , a toothed turtle that lived 220 million years ago and was discovered in 2008. Not only is this turtle believed to be the first species to venture into the marine world, but it is also a key specimen in the discovery of how the turtle’s shell evolved. Instead of a fully formed top shell like modern sea turtles, this animal had expanded ribs that were precursors of a shell. Discovering Odontochelys helped to solve a long debate between scientists about turtle shell evolutionary history . Originally scientists thought that the hardened armor of scutes formed before the turtle’s ribs widened to fuse with them and form a shell. However, the discovery of Odontochelys fossils provided evidence that widened ribs were actually the first feature to evolve before scutes appeared as a form of protection. Later in 2015 another freshwater turtle, Pappochelys rosinae , confirmed that the shell evolved from the ribs.

A fully formed shell did not appear until about 10 million years later in the fossil record with the turtle species Proganochelys quenstedti . These creatures had a ring of spikes around their neck and tail that prevented them from being able to fully retract their head into their shells.

During the Jurassic Period turtles split into two major taxonomic groups. All modern turtles belong to either the Cryptodira (hidden-necked turtles) or the Pleurodira (side-necked turtles) Hidden-necked turtles evolved the ability to retract their head and necks directly back into their shells and into their body cavity, while side-necked turtles fold their necks to the side to protect themselves. Modern sea turtles belong to the Cryptodira suborder, even though they have lost the ability to fully retract their necks.

The Cryptodira suborder has 11 surviving families; two of these are the Cheloniidae and the Dermochelyidae of modern sea turtles. The earliest turtle ancestor to look similar to a modern sea turtle and live exclusively in a marine environment is Desmatochelys padillai which lived about 120 million-years-ago in the Cretaceous period. Curiously, these turtles laid eggs with hard shells unlike the soft, leathery shells laid by modern-day sea turtles.

Originally, four families of sea turtles existed including Cheloniidae, Dermochelyidae, Toxochelyidae, and Protostegidae. One of the largest sea turtles ever, the giant Archelon of the Cretaceous period, belonged to the Protostegidae. This huge turtle measured 10 feet (3m) from head to tail and weighed about 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg). About the size of a small car, it had powerful, broad front flippers to propel it through the water and a thin shell to help it stay buoyant. Previously, scientists believed the Protostegidae were closely related to modern day sea turtles, however, more recent research suggests they are a completely separate lineage.

Many of the species in the Toxochelyidae and Protostegidae families went extinct during the asteroid event 66 million-years-ago that also caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs. About three-quarters of the animal and plant life on Earth went extinct during this event. The fact that some turtle species survived this biological catastrophe, including the ancestors of modern sea turtles, is evidence of their adaptability. The few species from Toxochelyidae and Protostegidae families that survived the asteroid eventually became extinct 50 million-years-ago.

But, species from the Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae families have continued on to the present day. Dermochelys coriacea , or the modern leatherback sea turtle, is the only surviving species of the Dermochelyidae family. The oldest confirmed ancestors of the leatherback are the Eosphargis that lived during the Eocene. Competition between the Dermochelyidae and other marine animals led to their demise by 2 million years ago. It is thought that the modern-day leatherback’s specialized diet of jellyfish helped it to survive.

Scientists are still trying to piece together the sea turtle’s complete and accurate evolutionary history. Their timeline is an ongoing area of research and new discoveries are still being made to fill in their family tree.

Reproduction

After a long migration back to their home beach, female sea turtles come ashore mostly at night during nesting season to lay clutches of eggs. It takes quite a bit of physical effort for the pregnant female to scrabble her way up the beach using her flippers. During this labor-intensive struggle, she can be easily disturbed and sometimes will abandon the nesting attempt.

Once she’s above the high tide line, the female uses her limbs to dig an egg chamber about 80 cm (30 in) deep. There are several steps in this process. First, she clears the area of any debris by using her front flippers to throw sand backward. The female slowly works herself down into the sand and creates a body pit to lie in while she continues the nesting process.

When the female is ready she begins to use her hind flippers to dig the nest chamber. The appendages normally used as paddles in the sea also function as spades—scraping the sand away, scooping it up, and depositing it to one side. She continues to dig this way until the pit is so deep that her appendages cannot reach to pull any more sand from the hole. At this point, she lowers her tail into the hole and begins to lay her eggs.

While the female is preoccupied with laying eggs, she enters a trance-like state and does not appear to be aware of what is happening around her. She lays the eggs in batches of two-to-three at a time. Each egg is about the size of a ping pong ball, with a soft shell. The average nest contains about 110 eggs, but the exact amount is species-dependent.

After all the eggs are laid, the female sea turtle fills in the hole with her hind flippers and packs down the sand. Finally, to camouflage the nest she throws sand backward with her front flippers and swings her hind flippers from side to side like windshield wipers. The female will move around during this process of concealment to scatter the sand in a deceptively wide area, before making the long trip down the beach to return to the sea. A female sea turtle will repeat this process several times during each nesting season and can make anywhere from 2 to 8 nests to maximize the number of eggs laid.

Sea turtle eggs develop over a period of about two months. The sea turtle eggs undergo temperature-dependent sex determination . This means that the temperature of each egg during certain periods of development determines the gender of the baby sea turtle that hatches.

In sea turtle nests, warmer eggs produce females while cooler eggs tend to be males. This type of gender determination means that nests, depending on their temperature, can hatch all males or all females. In a nest that fluctuates between warm and cool temperature shifts, both male and female hatchlings can be produced—typically eggs in the deeper, cooler area of the nest hatch as males and the warmer top of the nest is female-dominated.

Once the first hatchling emerges from its egg, it is not long before the entire nest has broken out of their shells. The babies chip their way out of their eggs by using a temporary sharp egg “tooth,” or caruncle, that is specially adapted for this purpose. This tooth-like outgrowth falls off soon after hatching.

It can take several days for the hatchlings to dig themselves out of the nest. The babies usually wait until nightfall before emerging in order to avoid both daytime predators and heat exhaustion, as the sand is cooler at night. The hatchlings situated at the top of the nest are pushed out by the ones beneath them. Those at the very bottom of the nest have a difficult time getting onto the beach because there are no hatchlings remaining to give them a push-up. Scientists in Costa Rica and others around the world have taken to searching through recently hatched sea turtle nests to make sure no babies are left hidden by sand covering the bottom of the emptied-out burrow and to assess hatching success. These seemingly small human efforts may help in the survival of these declining populations.

Once on the beach, hatchlings must find the ocean as quickly as possible. Sea turtles are phototactic, meaning they are attracted to light. Hatchlings will use the brightest light source, which is usually moonlight reflecting off the sea, to move toward the ocean. Once hatched, the tiny babies must avoid animals such as ghost crabs, dogs or raccoons, as well as humans, on the perilous trip across the sand. In the rolling breakers, they begin a frenzied swimming pace to escape marine predators such as fish, seabirds, and sharks, in their race to reach the open water. The discovery of fossilized sea turtle tracks in the sand suggests that this dash has been occurring at least since 100,000 years ago .

It is largely unknown where hatchlings go after they disappear into the surf and the years young turtles spend developing out to sea have been called “the lost years.” The satellite tags used to track adult sea turtles are too large to put on the tiny new sea turtles, but satellite tags are getting smaller and smaller and now weigh as little as a U.S. nickel. Scientists are attempting to solve this mystery using small tags attached with glue that allows room for a hatchling sea turtle to grow.

It takes decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. Only 1 in 1000 survives to reach this milestone. If an individual sea turtle survives to this point, it will mate at sea before the female returns, sometimes to the very same beach where she was born, in order to nest and begin the process again. The males almost never return to land after they enter the ocean as hatchlings.

The majority of a sea turtle’s life is spent swimming in the open ocean. Most sea turtles will nest in one area and then make massive migrations in the years in between to find a place to feed. Hawksbill turtles that nest in the Soloman Islands have been found to swim over 1,000 miles ( 1,600  km ) ,   and green sea turtles that nest in the Ascension Islands and feed by Brazil have a migration distance of roughly 1,430 miles  ( 2,300 km ) from one location to the other.

But some of the most amazing migrations are those of the loggerheads and leatherbacks. In the case of loggerhead sea turtles on the East Coast of the United States, many hatchlings float along in the North Atlantic Gyre or hang out in the Sargasso Sea . Hatchlings of loggerheads head for the open ocean, unlike most other sea turtle species’ hatchlings which tend to linger near coastlines.

Once a loggerhead matures, they will spend much of their life in the open ocean searching for a good location to feed. Loggerheads that nest along Florida and within the Carribean Sea follow the warm Gulf Stream along the Eastern United State’s coast North during the summer months. Many find their way into the nutritious waters of Georges bank by Maine or even cross the Atlantic to Europe. Once the water gets too cold in roughly the end of October into the beginning of November, loggerheads follow Atlantic Ocean currents back South to the warm waters of the Carribean.

Leatherback sea turtles migrate thousands of miles to feed and breed in different parts of the world. They have the largest geographic range of any sea turtle species. In fact, they have the widest geographical range of any marine reptile. One leatherback was recorded to have traveled over 12,000 miles from Indonesia to the Western Coast of the United States before the satellite tag was lost.  

The impressive nature of the leatherback’s migration length has to do with their specially adapted anatomy. Every leatherback has a distinct pink spot on their head unique to the individual sea turtle. The pink spots lie directly above the pineal gland which regulates the sea turtle’s circadian rhythms . The super thin skin allows sunlight to filter through and shine directly on the gland. Scientists theorize the leatherback uses the pink spots to measure sunlight and detect the seasonal lengthening and shortening of days. It is thought this awareness helps them know when it is time to migrate.

For most sea turtles, and especially the loggerhead and leatherbacks, the route of their migration takes them into areas of the ocean that are under the jurisdiction of several countries, and even into an area unclaimed by any nation called the high seas. This exposes them to various types of impacts since conservation concerns and laws differ from one country to the next. 

Sea turtles can also run into naturally occurring obstacles on their migration route. For loggerheads, Kemp's ridley’s and green sea turtles that feed in Georges Bank in the Northern Atlantic, the trip South is a tricky endeavor. Many get caught in the bays and inlets of the Northeast United States coast, predominantly Long Island Sound and more recently, in Cape Cod Bay of Massachusetts. Unable to regulate their temperature, the turtles become cold stunned , a physiological state similar to hypothermia, and are unable to swim. The sea turtles then wash ashore where they will die unless discovered and rehabilitated by the volunteer organizations that are part of the Northeast Standing program. In 2014, Massachusetts Audubon collected roughly 1,235 cold stunned turtles, the largest number recorded.

In the Food Web

Most sea turtles are omnivores , meaning they eat both plants and animals. The only herbivorous sea turtle is the green sea turtle, but they do not start out as herbivores. As hatchlings, green sea turtles eat fish eggs, mollusks, and crustaceans. It is not until adulthood that their diet switches exclusively to algae, seaweed, and seagrasses.

The leatherback sea turtle is another specialist, a carnivorous one. Leatherbacks are known for preying on jellyfish, though they will also eat squid and other jellyfish-like invertebrates. The rest of the sea turtle species eat a more varied diet, though most do have a favorite meal.

Hawksbill sea turtles have diets that are up to 95 percent sea sponges. Though they are sponge specialists, they also eat squid, shrimp, and algae. Loggerheads have the widest variety in their diet of any sea turtle. They eat sponges, corals, barnacles, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, sand dollars, and many other marine organisms. Their large jaws are very strong and allow them to crush and eat all kinds of prey. The Kemp’s ridley’s favored food is crabs, but they also eat fish, jellyfish, and other mollusks. Olive ridleys also eat a variety of species—they munch on crabs, shrimp, lobster, urchins, jellies, algae, and fish. The flatback diet is mostly carnivorous, consisting of sea cucumbers, soft corals, jellyfish, shrimp and occasionally seagrass.

Sea turtles do not have teeth to grasp their prey with, but instead, have very sharp beaks and strong jaws they use to crush their food. Every sea turtle also has stiff downward projections in their throats called papillae that prevent their meals from slipping back out of their mouth. Green sea turtles, due to their specialized diet of marine plants, have evolved serrated jaws to help them tear and munch their fibrous meals. Leatherbacks have no distinct beak like other sea turtle species; instead, their mouths function like scissors to grasp and swallow their jellyfish prey.

Sea turtles can also be prey—especially as hatchlings. As the tiny turtles make their way down the beach from the nest to the ocean, they are susceptible to raccoons, foxes, seabirds, and crabs. Once in the water, they can be eaten by seabirds, large fish or sharks. More than 90 percent of hatchlings are eaten by predators—meaning in a nest of 110 eggs, only about 11 will grow to be adults.

There are also many dangers that threaten sea turtle eggs. Predators on the beach can locate and dig up the nest to eat the eggs. The nests are also susceptible to damage by erosion, rain, flooding, or even other nesting sea turtles.

Adult sea turtles do not have much to fear but can be eaten by orcas, sharks, seals, or crocodiles. Some nesting females have been attacked by jaguars, as well. However, a sea turtle’s most dangerous predator is actually humans.

Six out of seven sea turtle species are listed as either vulnerable to extinction, endangered, or critically endangered, and for the seventh, the flatback, there is insufficient information to determine its population status. A variety of human actions have impacted sea turtles’ habitats and lives. Besides the direct hunting of sea turtles and their eggs, there are also indirect impacts from fishing, pollution, beach development, and climate change. Loss of significant numbers of sea turtles affects their valuable ecological role in the environment.

Poaching and Hunting

Sea turtle bones and shells have been found in excavated human settlement sites dating as far back as 7,000 years ago. Sea turtle meat was a staple food for tropical, coastal tribes for centuries. When Christopher Columbus sailed to the Caribbean he found a plentiful supply of sea turtle meat for his sailors. However, once sea turtles began to be hunted in greater numbers the food source quickly became unsustainable.

Sea turtle eggs have been a popular item for humans to hunt for consumption and, in some countries, harvesting continues. Historically, it was common practice for egg hunters to take the eggs from the nest as the sea turtle was laying them. Typically, none of the eggs were spared, leading to declining populations. The eggs could then be sold for a high price, as a food delicacy and as an aphrodisiac in some cultures.

Adult turtles were taken not only for meat but for their shells as well. The shells were used to produce tortoiseshell jewelry and combs, while the meat is considered a delicacy or necessity, in many areas of the world. Adult leatherback sea turtles had another prize to offer as well—the oil in their skin. Traditionally, sea turtle hunters would wait until a nesting female came on shore before flipping her onto her back where she could not escape. The next day the helpless females would be shipped off to market.

Sea turtles require decades to reach sexual maturity, so their population size takes a toll from the hunting of adults and juveniles, or the harvesting of eggs. Yet, it is still legal in many countries today to kill sea turtles. In 2014, there were 42 countries where hunting of sea turtles was still legal including Japan, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea. Even in locations where it is illegal, regular poaching of sea turtles and sea turtle eggs still occurs, due to a limited ability to enforce poaching laws.

Still, there are bright spots of hope for sea turtle populations throughout the world. There are several international agreements that protect sea turtles including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna ( CITES ), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals ( CMS ), and the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles ( IAC ). CITES made the trade of most species of sea turtles and their eggs illegal in 1981. CMS works to identify migratory species of animals near extinction that require international agreements in order to protect them — sea turtles are on their list. IAC is a treaty between 16 western hemisphere countries that forbid the capture of sea turtles and their eggs. Though illegal poaching of sea turtles and their eggs still continues, these measures help to curb the practice.

Entanglement and Bycatch

Fisheries not specifically targeting sea turtles also play a major role in their dwindling populations. Sea turtles often congregate in the same areas as commercially valuable fish and can be prone to becoming bycatch—the inadvertent capture of non-target animals in fishing gear. The leading cause of sea turtle deaths in the last 50 years has been commercial fisheries bycatch—mainly in shrimp trawls, gill nets, and longline fishing gear.

If a sea turtle becomes entangled in a net or fishing line or caught on a hook and is unable to reach the surface, it is at risk of drowning. Even if rescued, a released turtle will often have a hook left behind in its jaw, throat, or stomach. Loggerheads and leatherback sea turtles in particular often get caught in long lines, though it is unclear exactly what attracts the species to approach the lines in the first place. The largest sea turtle ever weighed was a 2,000 pound leatherback male that washed up dead on the Welsh coast, which died because of entanglement in fishing lines.

Efforts are underway to find solutions to bycatch issues. Practical solutions include changing the size or shape of hooks so a turtle can’t get its mouth around it (from a j-shaped hook to a circle hook), and the use of turtle-excluder devices (TEDs). TEDs are attachments to shrimper’s trawling nets that allow sea turtles to escape through a trap-door system while still capturing the desired shrimp targets. These devices rely on the turtle’s weight to push the door down in order to leave the net. Shrimp are too light to activate the door and so remain within the confines of the net.

TurtleWatch and new software called EcoCast , developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) have provided tools for Pacific fisheries to minimize bycatch. TurtleWatch provides current oceanic conditions to map where sea turtles may prefer so that fishing vessels can make more informed decisions for where and when to fish. EcoCast, which debuted in 2018, gives real-time forecasts to fishermen about where target species are likely to be located in relation to protected species, such as sea turtles. These technologies give fishers a tool to predict areas where they can deploy their gear and likely catch the highest amount of target species with the lowest amount of bycatch.

The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill was the largest marine spill in United States history. A report issued in April 2017 by NOAA reported that the spill released 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. NOAA scientists released figures indicating that thousands of sea turtles were killed by the spill and many more were injured. Low-end estimates of 4,900 large juvenile and adult sea turtles and 55,000 small juvenile sea turtles killed and 35,000 hatchlings injured were reported. Sea turtle habitats and breeding grounds were contaminated. The thickest oil concentrations were in the convergence zones where ocean currents meet and juvenile sea turtles are frequently present. During the spill, more than 600 turtles washed up dead, 75 percent of which were Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. This endangered species nests only in the Gulf of Mexico (see “Diversity” section).

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch continues to grow . There is no area of the ocean that is not affected by the 335 million metric tons of plastic produced every year on Earth. It is estimated that there are 5.25 trillion particles of plastic floating in the ocean. Plastics, when mistaken for food and eaten by sea turtles, can cause death. Besides death by ingestion, sea turtles can also become entangled in plastic debris, such as abandoned or lost fishing gear, which can result in drowning or injuries. Researchers from the University of Exeter estimated that well over 1,000 turtles die every year from entanglement in plastic debris. Reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic would not only help sea turtles but all marine organisms because so much plastic ends up in the ocean. Two years after the largest beach cleanup along the coast of Mumbai, sea turtles have returned to the beach to nest , something that hasn't happened in decades due to large amounts of trash on the beach.

One way humans can help injured or sick sea turtles is through sea turtle hospitals. Specialized hospitals have been established along coastlines in order to care for found injured or sick sea turtles while educating the public. Their goal is to eventually release the turtles back into the wild. Sea turtle hospitals come into play during cold stun events, oil spills, and injuries from boats and fishing gear. If sea turtles are found alive with hooks or other fishing gear caught on them, the specialty hospitals also strive to rehabilitate them to get them back out to their native ocean habitat.

Beach Development

A developed beach often has many barriers to nesting females. Sometimes these are physical barriers like sea walls, jetties, and sandbag structures aimed at preventing beach erosion, which can block nesting sea turtles from being able to move above the high tide line to nest. If the nest is placed below the high tide line, it runs the risk of being flooded out before the eggs can hatch.

Beach nourishment is the practice of filling in beaches with sand from another site to help stall erosion. Sometimes, sand can be taken from offshore and can have different characteristics than the normal sand found on beaches. This can cause problems for establishing nests and egg incubation if the new sand causes differences in temperature, gas exchange, or water content.

Even if the beach is not eroded and barrier-free, human development can harm the hatchlings chances of survival. After hatching and digging their way out of the nest, the hatchlings must find the sea. Hatchlings generally do this by moving towards the brightest light source. In a natural setting, this would be the moonlight reflecting off of the ocean. If artificial light sources from human development are present on the land side, this can confuse and misdirect the hatchlings. They may crawl in the wrong direction towards highways, highly developed areas, and other predators. Even if they realize their mistake and turn back around, the longer time period spent on land means a longer time period of vulnerability to predators, desiccation, and exhaustion.

People are becoming more aware throughout the world that protecting nesting beaches is vital to give sea turtles a better chance at survival. Education programs about artificial lighting have been implemented in places such as the United States and Europe. Coastal residents are informed about shading their windows at night and training lights away from the beach. These actions can reduce sea turtle hatchling disorientation and mortality due to crawling in the wrong direction away from the ocean.

Implementing living shorelines instead of hardened structures such as sea walls and jetties to help prevent beach erosion allows sea turtles access to their home beaches and the ability to nest normally there. Oyster beds and salt marshes are examples of living shorelines that feature natural structures which absorb incoming wave energy and act as protective barriers during storms. Living shorelines have other benefits as well, such as improving water quality, storing carbon, and increasing biodiversity.

• Climate Change

The exact effects climate change will have on the global ocean system is unknown. But we do know that the oceans will get warmer and sea levels will rise. This will affect many species populations—sea turtles included.

Warmer temperatures associated with climate change may cause the production of too many female sea turtles and not enough males. The species undergoes temperature-dependent sex determination because they do not possess X and Y chromosomes. Sea turtles are reliant on cooler egg temperatures to produce the male gender. In uniformly warm nests, all the eggs hatch as females. Not enough males being born to breed with the females can be an obstacle to future reproductive success.

Rising sea levels will disrupt many of the current nesting beaches around the world as they become more frequently flooded. These vital nesting beaches are already low in number compared to developed, unsuitable beaches. Pregnant females trying to make it back to a submerged home beach may not have many other options to go to lay their eggs. If they lay their eggs on an unsuitable beach, the nests stand less chance of remaining undisturbed and successfully producing hatchlings.

Warming waters can also affect adult sea turtles. The water temperature often affects the kind of prey available in an area and whether it is suitable for the ectothermic sea turtles to congregate. As more areas of the ocean warm, typical sea turtle ranges will change. The turtles may be forced to move into unfamiliar territory or outside of designated marine managed areas that have been designed to conserve and protect marine ecosystems. Outside the protection of marine managed areas, sea turtles can be much more vulnerable to the dangers that threaten them. Generally, marine managed areas are not quickly adaptable, requiring a lot of scientific research and bureaucratic processes to establish marine managed area borders. When the needs of a marine ecosystem change, the marine managed area may not adjust fast enough to keep up with rapidly changing conditions.

Studying sea turtles is a difficult task as these animals spend almost the entirety of their lives beneath the ocean surface. It is mostly hatchlings and nesting females that spend any portion on land. In fact, the period of time in between hatchlings making their way into the surf and when they return to nest as adults is often called a sea turtle’s “lost years.” Scientists do not really know much about where they go and what they do. As technology has improved over the years, researchers have been able to observe some of the mysterious undertakings of turtles at sea, but we are far from having all the answers.

One tool that has helped in the quest to unlock the secrets of sea turtles is the National Geographic Crittercams program. Cameras have been attached to various animals to give viewers video footage from the perspective of the animal. Sea turtles have successfully had Crittercams attached, allowing us to see videos captured from the backs of sea turtles. Footage has shown them foraging for food, swimming, diving, and interacting with other turtles.

Researchers can also track sea turtle movements and habits using satellite telemetry. Electronic tags are attached to sea turtles and their signals tracked using Earth-orbiting satellites. The tags transmit data which is received by a satellite when the host sea turtle emerges from dives to the ocean surface. The satellite then sends the data to researchers’ computers. The tags’ data collecting capability usually lasts from 6 to 10 months. These data can tell us important information such as where and when the animals move, the timing and depth of dives, body temperature, and how long the sea turtle spends beneath the surface in between breaths.

Other types of tags include flipper tags and passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags. Flipper tags are external tags attached to a sea turtle’s flipper. They are generally made of metal or plastic and have an embossed number unique to the individual sea turtle. PIT tags are internal and when scanned, they transmit information stored in the individualized barcode, the equivalent of an animal’s individual fingerprint. Flipper and PIT tags can be used to observe an individual sea turtle’s movements over time. Unlike satellite telemetry tags, they cannot give detailed behavioral and physiological data such as the depth of dives or internal vital signs.

Sea turtles have been present in human cultural traditions and mythology for millennia. The charismatic species have often been cast as a central character in art and allegorical tales that define and connect civilizations. Many cultures have revered sea turtles as celestial beings with supernatural power.

For example, the indigenous Iroquois people of eastern North America told a creation story where the Earth was formed on the back of a sea turtle after Sky Woman fell from the sky to the ocean. In the tale, Muskrat went to get mud from the deep sea to build Sky Woman a home on Great Turtle’s back.

The Moche people of Peru and the Seri Indians from the Gulf of California both have creation stories that describe the Earth being built on the back of a great sea turtle swimming in a vast ocean. In Hindu mythology, the earth is supported by four elephants standing on the back of a turtle. The Hindu deity Vishnu was reincarnated as the turtle Kachhapa that carried the weight of the world on its back.

Ancient Mayans created images of sea turtles in carved objects, stone altars, written symbols, and paintings. The creature represented the circular earth and the cyclical passage of time. Scenes from the Mayan creation story, reflected in the stars, involve the sea turtle. The turtle constellation, known as Ak’ek, was associated with three stars that form the sword belt of the constellation we know as Orion, the hunter.

The sea turtle is also prevalent in other cultural legends. The mythical Chinese emperor Fu His was said to have created Chinese writings using eight mystic diagrams inspired by markings he saw on a sea turtle’s shell as it emerged from the water. The ancient Chinese used sea turtle shells as oracles for divination. In Hawaiian culture, the sea turtle, called Honu, guided the first Polynesians to the chain of islands. Another Hawaiian legend is that of Kailua, a sea turtle who transforms into a woman in order to watch over children playing on the beach.

Like ancient myths, modern-day popular culture features sea turtles as wise guides, rescuers, warriors, and friends. Crush and Squirt are loveable sea turtles from the Disney movie Finding Nemo who befriend Nemo and aid him on his journey. Tirtouga and the evolution Carracosta are skillful Pokemon warrior sea turtles. Umigame is the thousand-year-old sea turtle of Dragon Ball and is even older than Master Roshi. And Shen-zin Su in World of Warcraft is a giant sea turtle called the Wandering Isle by beings who ride on his back as they explore the world.

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Sanctuaries resource collection: Sea turtles

Sea turtles breathe air, like all reptiles, and have streamlined bodies with large flippers. They are well adapted to life in the ocean and inhabit tropical and subtropical ocean waters around the world. Of the seven species of sea turtles, six are found in U.S. waters; these include the green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and olive ridley.

Loggerhead Turtle escaping a net equipped with turtle exclusion device (TED) (Image credit: NOAA)

Sea turtle nesting

Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females have to return to beaches to lay their eggs. They often migrate long distances between feeding areas and nesting beaches. The six species of sea turtles in the United States are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 . NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) administer the Endangered Species Act with respect to marine turtles. NOAA Fisheries leads conservation and recovery of sea turtles when they are at sea, while the USFWS has the lead when they are on nesting beaches.

Sea turtles are fascinating creatures. Learn some facts about these much loved marine reptiles.

Threats to sea turtles

Sea turtles are under threat from a variety of hazards. Major threats in the United States include damage and changes to nesting and foraging habitats, accidental capture during fishing, getting tangled in marine debris , and being hit by boats and ships. To reduce harm to sea turtles, NOAA restricts commercial fishers from using certain kinds of fishing gear (gill nets, long-lines, pound nets, and trawls) that are known to catch large numbers of sea turtles as bycatch . NOAA Fisheries and the USFWS developed plans to guide research and management to improve the health and long-term survival of each sea turtle species.

Turtle excluder devices 

Sea turtles can be accidentally caught in shrimp nets and drown. To prevent this, NOAA Fisheries, along with environmental and fishing organizations developed turtle excluder devices (TED) . A TED is a grid of bars with an opening at the top or bottom of a shrimp net, similar to a trap door. Small animals, like shrimp, pass through the grid bars and are caught in the net. When sea turtles and other large animals are accidentally captured in the net, they are deflected by the grid bars and can escape through an opening called a TED flap and swim away. TEDs can dramatically reduce sea turtle death and are required to use while shrimp fishing in some areas. A turtle escaping from a TED can be seen in the main photo on this page.

Most people associate sea turtles with warm, tropical destinations. You might be surprised to learn that some sea turtle species can also be found in the frigid ocean waters off Alaska. 

Sea turtle conservation 

The conservation and recovery of sea turtles requires cooperation and agreements to make sure these migratory animals survive. NOAA Fisheries partners with other agencies and groups, and has a national and international programs to help conservation and recovery efforts of sea turtles.

Learn what actions you can take to help save sea turtles.

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The resources in this collection provide educators and students with opportunities to explore the biology and adaptations of sea turtles, their position in marine food webs, the human and natural threats to their survival, and federal conservation efforts. In addition, these resources help students become involved in improving the sea turtles long-term survival. Activities include habitat restoration, turtle interaction etiquette, and tracking sea turtles through real-time radio telemetry data.

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Information About Sea Turtles: General Behavior

Because of the difficulty in studying marine turtles in the open ocean, there are a great many things still unknown about their behavior. Decades of research, however, including observations at sea, have produced useful insights into daily activities and behaviors such as courtship, mating and nesting.

Daily Activities

Sea turtles are known to feed and rest off and on during a typical day. During nesting season, research conducted in the southeast United States helped discovered that loggerheads follow regular patterns between the nesting beach itself and offshore reefs and other rocky structures. It is presumed that mating and/or feeding occurs at these offshore areas. When it is not nesting season, sea turtles may migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles. Sea turtles can sleep at the surface while in deep water or on the bottom wedged under rocks in nearshore waters. Many divers have seen green turtles sleeping under ledges in reefs and rocks. Hatchlings typically sleep floating on the surface, and they usually have their front flippers folded back over the top of their backs.

Courtship & Mating

Courtship and mating for most sea turtles are believed to occur during a limited “receptive” period prior to the female’s first nesting emergence. Afterwards, only females come ashore to nest; males almost never return to land once they leave the sand of their natal beach. During mating season, males may court a female by nuzzling her head or by gently biting the back of her neck and rear flippers. If the female does not flee, the male attaches himself to the back of the female’s shell by gripping her top shell with claws in his front flippers. He then folds his long tail under her shell to copulate.

Females observed on the nesting beach after recently mating often have scratched shells and may be bleeding from where the males’ were hooked to their shells. Copulation can take place either on the surface or under water. Sometimes several males will compete for females and may even fight each other. Observers of sea turtle mating have reported very aggressive behavior by both the males and females. Females may mate with several males just prior to nesting season and store the sperm for several months. When she finally lays her eggs, they will have been fertilized by a variety of males. This behavior may help keep genetic diversity high in the population.

Nesting, Incubation and Emergence

Beach Selection

Most females return faithfully to the same beach each time they are ready to nest. Not only do they appear on the same beach, they often emerge within a few hundred yards of where they last nested.

Nesting Behavior

Only the females nest, and it occurs most often at night. The female crawls out of the ocean, pausing frequently as if carefully scoping out her spot. Sometimes she will crawl out of the ocean, but for unknown reasons decide not to nest. This is a “false crawl,” and it can happen naturally or be caused by artificial lighting or the presence of people on the beach. Most females nest at least twice during the nesting season, although individuals of some species may nest only once and others more than ten times. Sea turtles are generally slow and awkward on land, and nesting is exhausting work.

Constructing the Nest

The female turtle crawls to a dry part of the beach and begins to fling away loose sand with her flippers. She then constructs a “body pit” by digging with her flippers and rotating her body. After the body pit is complete, she digs an egg cavity using her cupped rear flippers as shovels. The egg cavity is shaped roughly like a tear drop and is usually tilted slightly.

Laying and Burying the Eggs

Incubation takes about 60 days, but since the temperature of the sand governs the speed at which the embryos develop, the hatching period can cover a broad range. Essentially, the hotter the sand surrounding the nest, the faster the embryos will develop. Cooler sand has a tendency to produce more males, with warmer sand producing a higher ratio of females.

Emerging from the Nest

If they don’t make it to the ocean quickly, many hatchlings will die of dehydration in the sun or be caught by predators like birds and crabs. Once in the water, they typically swim several miles off shore, where they are caught in currents and seaweed that may carry them for years before returning to nearshore waters. There are many obstacles for hatchlings in the open ocean. Sharks, big fish and circling birds all eat baby turtles, and they die after accidentally eating tar balls and plastic garbage. The obstacles are so numerous for baby turtles that only about one in 1,000 survives to adulthood.

Migration and Navigation Abilities

The ability of a sea turtle to migrate hundreds (and occasionally thousands) of miles from its feeding ground to its nesting beach is one of the most remarkable acts in the animal kingdom. That adult females return faithfully to nest on the very beach where they were born makes the feat even more amazing. Research into where and how sea turtles migrate has been a focus of scientists for decades. The information collected is vital to the development of conservation strategies for the species. We now know that sea turtles undergo migration throughout their lives, beginning with the first frenzied swim as a hatchling.

During its first critical 48 hours, a hatchling must travel from the beach to a place in the ocean where it is relatively safe from predators and where it can find food. Many hatchlings in the Atlantic and Caribbean make their way into Gulf stream currents, which are filled with floating sargassum weed. There the young turtles find an ample food supply and few predators. After several years of floating around the Atlantic, these young turtles are big enough to venture back into nearshore waters.

Reprinted from a study of the Orientation and Navigation of Hatchling Loggerhead Sea Turtles.

“Although all Florida loggerheads appear to spend a period of years within the North Atlantic gyre, different turtles probably do not follow precisely the same migratory route. In the diagram at left, the red lines indicate some possible migratory paths that different individuals may take. In addition, whereas most turtles appear to circle the gyre only once, some individuals may make more than one circuit, others may spend time in the Sargasso Sea, and a few have been captured in the Mediterranean.” Reprinted from a study of the Orientation and Navigation of Hatchling Loggerhead Sea Turtles .

Sea turtles typically spend their juvenile years eating and growing in nearshore habitats. Once they reach adulthood and sexual maturity, it is believed that they migrate to a new feeding ground. It is in this primary feeding area where adult turtles probably remain throughout their lives, except during breeding season. When it is their time to mate and nest, both males and females leave their feeding grounds and migrate to the nesting beach. This periodic migration will continue throughout their lives.

In the open ocean, sea turtles encounter strong currents; they have only modest vision, they can only raise their heads several inches out of the water, and there are often no visible landmarks. Even with these limitations, sea turtles regularly navigate long distances to find the same tiny stretch of nesting beach. How they do it is one of the greatest mysteries in the animal kingdom, and finding an answer has been the focus of generations of researchers. One promising new hypotheses on how sea turtles navigate suggests that they can detect both the angle and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field. Using these two characteristics, a sea turtle may be able to determine its latitude and longitude, enabling it to navigate virtually anywhere. Early experiments seem to suggest that sea turtles have the ability to detect magnetic fields. Whether they actually use this ability to navigate is the next hypotheses being investigated.

Studying Migration

To fully protect sea turtles throughout their range, more must be known about their migratory patterns and their behavior in the water. Several methods are used by researchers to determine where sea turtles move. One of the simplest methods involves placing a small, harmless metal tag on one of the turtle’s flippers when she comes ashore to nest. Each tag includes a coded number and a message asking people to return the tag to a certain address if it is found. When people return a tag, they get a small reward and are asked where the turtle was encountered. In this way, researchers gradually learn about the many places to which turtles migrate. In the case of turtles nesting at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, tag returns make it clear that turtles nesting there disperse to feeding areas throughout the Caribbean. A large portion of them go to the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua. Efforts are now focused on limiting the number of turtles killed there for meat. The use of flipper tags has provided vital information, but it still leaves many questions unanswered.

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A Remote Island Draws Thousands of Turtles Each Year. Could It Attract Tourists?

Green sea turtles swim hundreds of miles to nest on a spectacular West African archipelago. Getting there is quite a journey for humans, too.

By Ricci Shryock

Ricci Shryock is a writer and photographer based in Dakar, Senegal.

Each year, thousands of baby green sea turtles clamber across a beautiful, white-sand paradise that is one of the largest hatching sites of this species in the Atlantic, adorably making their way to the sea. There’s one noticeable absence: people.

The spectacular hatching events take place between August and December on Poilão Island, a tiny, uninhabited speck off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is the southernmost island of the 88 that make up the Bijagós archipelago, a UNESCO biosphere reserve . Last year, turtles laid more than 44,000 nests on its 1.4 mile-long beach.

While the masses of turtles seem to have little trouble finding the spot to lay their eggs — some swim more than 600 miles across the North Atlantic — it’s hard to imagine somewhere more challenging for human turtle-lovers to reach.

The country’s tourism minister, Alberto Demba Touré, said that access is a main challenge. “We want to increase the tourists who go to the Bijagós,” he said. Last year, UNESCO declared its support for the Bijagós Islands to seek World Heritage List status , which, if successful, would increase its visibility and strengthen its environmental protections.

Turtle conservation programs have become a staple of resorts in many popular destinations, including in Hawaii, Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. Guinea-Bissau may like to capture a meager sliver of that pie, but it would be with steep challenges.

Politically fragile Guinea-Bissau has very little infrastructure and is one of the world’s poorest and least touristed nations. Most flights to Bissau, the country’s sleepy capital on the mainland, require a connection in Lisbon or Dakar, Senegal. Then, from Bissau, it’s a bumpy one-hour drive to the coast, and five to seven hours in a speedboat (depending on the route) to Poilão Island.

A limited number of tourists, usually no more than a dozen at a time, are allowed to visit the Poilão Island, which is part of the João Vieira and Poilão Marine National Park. The island is considered sacred by the archipelago’s residents and no construction is allowed on it.

A plane, to a truck, to a speedboat

Last fall I traveled to Poilão at the height of hatching season to witness the baby turtles make their way from nest to sea, and to see how the local workers monitor and ensure the survival of the tens of thousands of hatchlings each year.

I started in Bissau, a riverside city of half a million, after flying there from my home in Dakar. A few blocks from the presidential palace, people sat at plastic tables under mango trees, listening to music and eating grilled oysters plucked from the roots of the nearby mangroves. Women walked by selling cashew fruit, which has a sour, fermented aroma.

Visitors to Bissau might visit the war museum, in an 18th-century fort and an active military base, to see the mainly Soviet-sponsored weapons used by Bissau-Guinean fighters during the independence war against their Portuguese rulers that ended in 1974.

The next morning, another visitor and I climbed into a truck that took us to the coast. I had booked my Poilão trip with a hotel on one of the islands, Orango Parque Hotel, which arranged boat transport, park fees, meals, a guide and simple accommodations for three nights. The whole arrangement cost about $1,470.

We left the capital’s main paved avenue for potholed small lanes. An hour later, we reached the dock, near an abandoned hotel among the mangroves, where I climbed into a white speedboat.

For three hours, we sped through the open ocean, passing small, mostly uninhabited islands of the Bijagós. We occasionally passed fishermen — half a dozen men in brightly painted, long wooden boats — who waved as we buzzed by.

A stop to meet the priestesses

Eventually, we landed on a beach at the hotel on Orango Island, the largest in the archipelago, where we would spend two nights before continuing the journey. We were shown to our small round houses that contained a single comfortable room, and given a lunch of fresh fish and rice.

Eduardo da Silva, a boat captain and guide at the hotel who grew up on the island, said tourists can learn a lot from the way Bijagós residents interact with nature.

“On Orango, we have always been conservationists,” he said.

One day during my stay, Mr. Da Silva took me to meet the local priestesses . Orango is a matriarchal society; today the priestesses still make decisions about when certain harvests take place and what is allowed to happen on sacred grounds. I offered the women two unlabeled, neon-green bottles of cana, alcohol made from sugar cane, which I had bought for this purpose from a roadside stand when leaving Bissau. After a short ceremony with the cana, the priestesses spoke about how they base their community decisions on what will ensure a continued balance with the environment.

“Conservation can protect what is ours, so that we don’t lose it and so that our children who are born tomorrow can know it,” said Nene Ecane, one of the priestesses, in the Bijagós language via a translator.

Landing on Poilão

When it was time to leave Orango, another speedboat — smaller than the one the day before — drove us through clear waters for two hours. We spotted dolphins and Mr. Da Silva banged his hand on the side of the boat. The dolphins came closer and jumped alongside us.

While most of the speedboat journey from Bissau had been smooth, near Poilão the boat hit rougher waves. It was just before sunset when we landed. Occasional patches of volcanic black rocks, vital for green sea turtles, dotted the small beach.

As we unloaded the boat, a half-dozen workers from the João Vieira and Poilão Marine National Park greeted us, including Tumbulo Garcia Bamba, the park’s adjunct director.

“It’s good for tourists to come and learn and see how we work here for the turtles,” he said. He said he hopes that more attention to the turtles of Poilão will lead people outside of the region to respect the environment.

Mr. Bamba said he had noticed more trash washing up on the island’s shores; the Orango hotel scheduled a clean-up crew for the following week, which is not normally needed. Workers on the islands said many of the products seen among the trash — including bottled water and cosmetics — were not available in Guinea-Bissau and may have come from other parts of West Africa.

“The ocean knows no borders,” said Mr. Bamba.

A mad dash to the sea

Other than our individual tents, which were set up a few dozen feet from the beach, there were few other signs of human life. There is no cell reception.

But we were not alone. All along the beach lay thousands of buried turtle eggs. Every few steps there was another underground sea turtle hatchling family, the park workers told us. Many nests had markers, but not all. We walked gingerly.

The workers, many of whom are from the Bijagós Islands, not only count and monitor the hatchlings, but also help them make their way safely to the sea.

Even though the nests are just 20 or so feet from the ocean, the two-inch-long hatchlings are susceptible to many threats during their brief journey to the water — specifically birds, which wait in the nearby trees ready to snatch them.

We followed the workers throughout the early evening as they dug up nests — sometimes they were chest-deep in sand. They gathered dozens of just-hatched turtles into buckets and held them at the campsite until nightfall and high tide, when it was safer to release them.

A few hours later, in the darkness, the workers took the buckets of turtles back to the beach and let them go. All at once, a few hundred small hatchlings made their mad dash for the safety of the sea. Under the starlight, they used their small front flippers to quickly — and adorably — push their way through the sand to the water.

After the sea turtle release, we sat down for a fresh fish dinner, grilled over an open fire by the hotel staff. The park workers ate next to us, all of us using headlamps and flashlights in the dark.

A laptop, powered by solar panels, blasted a playlist of ’90s and early 2000s love ballads as our dinner soundtrack, giving the evening a surreal feel. It was just us, Usher, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and, beneath a few feet of sand, thousands of baby turtles waiting for their first swim through the waves.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

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By the Numbers: The Annual Migration of Green Sea Turtles in Hawaiʻi

September 26, 2017

Many green sea turtles travel hundreds of miles across the Hawaiian archipelago from foraging to nesting habitat every year.

Can you imagine a 1,200-mile commute? Every year, many green sea turtles (or honu as they are locally known in Hawai‘i) make the 1,200-mile (1,931-kilometer) round-trip migration from foraging habitats in the main Hawaiian Islands to reproduce and nest at French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and then swim back again.

Green sea turtles bask along the shores of French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Photo: NOAA Fisheries/Marylou Staman).

Since 1973, biologists with PIFSC's Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program have also made the annual trip to remote French Frigate Shoals to monitor nesting activity. This summer, the field biologists started monitoring sea turtles in May and worked tirelessly for four months (usually at night) to count nests, tag nesting females, and count how many hatchlings emerge from nests. Hatchling information provides a measure of reproductive output—important information needed to more accurately assess the status and health of the population.

Green sea turtle with etched number on its shell in non-toxic paint on the shores of French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Photo: NOAA Fisheries/Marylou Staman).

Program staff tagged every nesting female they encountered (called “saturation tagging”) and carefully etched a number on each turtle's shell. Turtles are now returning to the main Hawaiian Islands with these numbers on their shells. The public has a unique opportunity to act as citizen scientists to record numbered turtles and gather information to help better understand foraging habitats, migration, and distribution.

If you see a numbered turtle:

• Keep a respectful distance of 10 feet (3 meters).
• Take a photo (without disturbing the turtle).
• Call or email NOAA to report the turtle’s number and location.

Call NOAA at: 888-256-9840 or email: [email protected]

This menu-based phone number can be used to report sightings or emergencies for sea turtles, monk seals, dolphins, and whales.

All photos taken with research permit.

More Information

• Green Turtle
• Honu Count 2018: Help Us Find Numbered Sea Turtles in Hawaii

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Migrating Sea Turtles Don’t Really Know Where They’re Going

New research finds that many hawksbill turtles take meandering routes to reach foraging sites in the Indian Ocean

Daily Correspondent

After laying their eggs on Diego Garcia island each winter, hawksbill turtles swim dozens of miles to foraging sites in the Indian Ocean, where they feast on sea sponges and other marine plants and animals. But as it turns out, they’re not really sure where they’re going during this relatively short migration.

A new study published this month in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface finds that, although they eventually reach their target destination, hawksbill turtles often take a meandering, circuitous route to get there, suggesting that they have a relatively crude map sense of the ocean.

Maps the researchers created to show the turtles’ routes look like the scribbles in a child’s coloring book. Many random loops and double-backs occurred before the turtles reached their intended destination. One turtle swam more than 800 miles to reach a spot that was a little more than 100 miles away, according to the researchers.

"Really long migrations are surprisingly easy for turtles to complete from a navigation perspective,” Graeme Hays , a marine scientist at Deakin University and one of the study’s co-authors, tells the Australian Associated Press ’ Tracey Ferrier. “It's the journeys to small isolated targets that are the tricky ones."

To better understand hawksbill turtles’ navigational skills, the researchers attached GPS tracking devices to 22 individuals who had completed nesting on Diego Garcia in 2018 and 2019. Then, they tracked the reptiles’ journey to their foraging grounds on submerged banks in the nearby Chagos Archipelago.

Hawksbill turtles typically weigh between 100 and 150 pounds and they’re 2 to 3.5 feet long. For decades, people have hunted this endangered species for its colorful, patterned shell, a practice that is now illegal.

Compared to animals that migrate on land, who have lots of good navigational markers to help them get where they’re going, animals that migrate in the ocean have much less information to go on. How exactly sea turtles, fish, birds and other marine wildlife reach their target destinations has stymied scientists, including Charles Darwin, for decades.

Past research has suggested that sea turtles can perceive the Earth’s magnetic field and use those cues to reach specific sites in the ocean. But, until now, the precision of the turtles’ map sense has remained a mystery. In other words, are they traveling in roughly the right direction, or are they able to pinpoint exactly where they want to go?

Now, researchers have more evidence to help answer that question. Since the turtles don’t nest and forage in the same locations, researchers had assumed the hungry turtles might take the most direct path to food (the turtles tracked in the study likely hadn’t eaten in four or five months, per the researchers). But as it turns out, hawksbill turtles in the Indian Ocean traveled more than twice the beeline, or direct, distance to their foraging grounds, on average, the scientists find.

At times, the turtles seemed to understand that they were off the most direct route and corrected their course. They often did this in shallower water, the researchers find, which suggests that they gleaned important navigational information from the seabed.

“They could probably just recognize the seafloor, just like you would recognize visual landmarks in the area where you live,” Hays tells the Guardian ’s Donna Lu.

Once they got close enough to a particular foraging site, they were able to sniff out the rest of the route, per Hays. And though getting lost isn’t ideal for hungry turtles, the off-course reptiles unknowingly helped “solve a more than century-old riddle” in the process, the researchers write in the paper.

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Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

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The First Sea Turtle Nests of 2024 Have Arrived

By Staff April 29, 2024

Image: Courtesy Photo

Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program (STCRP) documented the first local sea turtle nest of the 2024 nesting season on Sunday, April 28, on Venice Beach in South Sarasota County. This marks the beginning of a crucial period for sea turtle conservation. 

From April 15 to October 31, Mote's Sea Turtle Patrol—comprised of STCRP staff, interns and more than 300 volunteers—conducts daily monitoring throughout the nesting season. Each day, they diligently survey a staggering 35 miles of beaches, from Longboat Key to Venice.

“Even though sea turtle nesting season isn’t officially supposed to start until May 1, we like to be prepared and patrol early to make sure we catch the first signs of nesting on our beaches,” says Melissa Macksey, Mote senior biologist and STCRP's conservation manager. “Our enthusiastic volunteers and interns make patrolling 35 miles of beaches possible. We could not do it without them. They are the reason we were able to catch this early nest.” 

The first nest was laid by a loggerhead sea turtle, a threatened species protected under federal law. Loggerheads are the most common species of sea turtle on southwest Florida nesting beaches, followed by endangered green sea turtles. In recent years, Sarasota County beaches have also been home to a handful of endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles, which are among the smallest and rarest sea turtles.

During nesting season, the STCRP documents nesting activities, which allows them to analyze trends, phenological shifts (timing of nesting events in relation to the seasons), nesting density (the number of nests in a given area), emergence success (the number of eggs in a nest that produces live hatchlings that surface), environmental impacts, effects of nest site selection and more. As it has for the last four decades, the STCRP will mark each nest with yellow stakes and flagging tape while observing and collecting data. 

And here's some good news: Mote’s research shows that nest numbers have increased on local beaches in recent years. In 2023, Mote reported 4,284 nests from Longboat Key to Venice. The public can view Mote’s weekly counts of sea turtle nests within the patrol area here . 

“Now that we have identified the first nest of the season, we implore beachgoers to be conscious of the sea turtles while enjoying Florida’s unparalleled beaches,” says Macksey. “There are many simple ways to help protect sea turtles and their nests. Hatchlings will have a better chance at surviving if everyone does their part.” 

How to Protect Sea Turtles

During nesting season, it is important to keep local waters and beaches sea turtle friendly.

Sea turtles are swimming just offshore to mate before the females come ashore to nest, juvenile turtles are feeding along the Gulf Coast, and by early summer the first hatchlings will venture into Gulf waters.

On the nesting beaches, light from waterfront properties can disorient nesting female turtles and their young, who emerge at night and use dim natural light to find the sea. Beach furniture, trash and other obstacles can also impede sea turtles and their young.

On the Beach

If you encounter a nesting turtle or hatchlings, remain quiet and observe from a distance.

Shield or turn off outdoor lights that are visible on the beach from May through October.

Close drapes after dark and stack beach furniture at the dune line or, ideally, remove it from the beach.

Fill in holes that may entrap hatchlings on their way to the water

Do not approach nesting turtles or hatchlings, make noise, or shine lights at turtles.

Do not use flashlights or fishing lamps on the beach.

Do not encourage a turtle to move while nesting or pick up hatchlings that have emerged and are heading for the water.

Do not use fireworks on the beach.

For more details, please refer to local sea turtle ordinances, including Sarasota County’s marine turtle protection code (which includes Lido, Siesta, Casey, and Manasota Keys), the City of Venice marine turtle protection ordinance, and the Town of Longboat Key marine turtle protection ordinance. An updated Longboat Key ordinance took effect in 2022. For questions about any sea turtle code or ordinance, contact code enforcement staff from each municipality.

On the Water

Follow Coast Guard-approved safe boating guidelines and use vigilance to avoid striking sea turtles and other large marine life.

Be sure to stow trash and line when underway. Marine debris that accidentally blows overboard or out of a truck can become ingested by or entangled around marine life. 

Wear polarized sunglasses to better see marine life in your path.

Emergency Contacts

If you see a sick, injured, or stranded sea turtle, dolphin, or whale in Sarasota or Manatee county waters, contact Mote Marine Laboratory’s Stranding Investigations Program at (888) 345-2335. Outside of Sarasota or Manatee counties, please call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

If you suspect that someone is tampering with a sea turtle nest, harassing a sea turtle, or has possession of a sea turtle or any of its parts, please call FWC or your local sheriff’s department.

Sea turtles are protected under federal law and any harassment or interference with a sea turtle, living or dead, their eggs and/or nest marking materials is subject to penalty.

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Sea turtle nesting season begins: What Northwest Florida beachgoers should know

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. -- Sea turtle nesting season is now underway -- and Escambia County wants the community to be aware.

Wednesday marked Escambia County Sea Turtle Conservation Program volunteers' first daily morning patrol on Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key.

"Volunteers start their patrols at first light to have the best chance of spotting tracks, nests, and other turtle activity before footprints, wind, and waves obscure the tracks," the county says. "Volunteers and staff will continue to check on nests during the incubation period, ensuring they remain undisturbed and remain on stand-by to assist with strandings and other turtle-related incidents. The nesting season will run through September, although late season nests can hatch as late as October.

Four species of sea turtle nest in Escambia County. The loggerhead and green sea turtles are the most common nesters, followed by the less common Kemp’s ridley and leatherback. Female turtles will make their way onto the beaches through early summer and may nest several times in a single season.

After 60 days of incubation, the tiny hatchling turtles will emerge all at once under cover of darkness and race to the Gulf of Mexico. The hatchlings will make their way to open water with fewer predators. After a few years of growing and feeding, they will return to the area as juveniles and sub-adults. Here, they will continue to grow and feed until they are mature enough to mate and lay their nests. Juvenile and adult sea turtles can often be seen foraging in the bays and sounds, including near local fishing piers and artificial reefs.

Here are tips for beachgoers when it comes to sea turtles:

• Lights Out: Bright lights can disturb nesting sea turtles and disorient adults and hatchlings on the beach. When visiting the beach after dark, keep cell phones and flashlights off. Instead, use a red flashlight or no light at all. For beachfront homes, turn off exterior lights when not in use and keep blinds and curtains shut after sunset.
• Leave Only Footprints: Help keep the beaches obstacle-free for nesting and hatchling turtles. All personal items, including chairs, tents, umbrellas, toys, and water equipment, must be removed from the beach by sunset each day. Make sure to fill in holes and flatten any sandcastles.
• Share the Beach: Stay out of posted nesting areas and avoid setting up belongings on the edges of marked areas. Avoid disturbing birds resting on the beach; if you see a nesting sea turtle, give it space. Do not handle sea turtle or shorebird eggs and hatchlings. Dogs are only allowed in designated beach dog parks and must always be kept on a leash.

Dead or injured sea turtles and marine life should be reported to Escambia County Marine Resources at (850) 426-1257 or the FWC Wildlife Alert line at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922). 

Amphibian Rescue Moscow High Students Spend A Week In Mexico Helping Save Sea Turtles

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Tuesday, November 11, 1997): Correction Not amphibians: Turtles are reptiles. A headline on Monday’s Our Generation page incorrectly labeled them.

Working through the night an arm’s length from poachers to save sea turtles doesn’t sound like much of a vacation.

But for Lee Anne Eareckson and the Moscow (Idaho) High School Environmental Club it was a great time.

At the end of September they packed their bags for a week at Camp La Gloria in Mexico. The camp was anything but luxurious; no running water or electricity.

The students collected rain water for drinking and washing, said Hannah Vander Zanden, a junior.

The students were paired with biologists in Mexico who work to save Olive Ridley sea turtles. The trip was arranged through Oneworld Workforce, an organization based in Flagstaff, Ariz. that matches groups with educational and charitable working trips.

Even though conditions at Camp La Gloria were primitive, Vander Zanden said it didn’t matter once the work started, and there was plenty of work.

On the first night, exhausted students were rounded up for a turtle hatching.

“Everyone was getting ready for bed, and the biologists come and say there’s been a turtle hatching. You guys really need to come down and help release them on the beach,” said Melissa Neer, a senior.

Students carried buckets of turtles to the beach where they poured them onto the sand at the edge of the water. The turtles followed the light of the moon and quickly disappeared in a wave.

During the day, students went to local schools, helped with camp chores or tended to the turtle nursery. At the schools, the students helped build a Palapa.

“It’s a shelter covered with leaves from palm trees,” Vander Zanden explained.

Back in the nursery, eggs continued to hatch, keeping the Moscow students busy.

Kristin Coleman, a senior, said, “If you didn’t get to the nest in time, the turtles died.”

She explained that the newborn turtles were at risk of being eaten by crabs or, if they were in the sun for more than 20 minutes, they would dry up and die.

Vander Zanden said it can take four days for the turtles to climb out of the nest after they hatch.

“They’re exhausted at first, but then they have so much energy.”

After the baby turtles emerge, they are taken to a wading pool where they wait to be released into the sea at night.

The eggs in each nest at the nursery are counted and, at set intervals, the nests are excavated and inventoried to see how many eggs hatched.

When night fell, some of the students went to the beach, turned off their flashlights and released the baby turtles into the moonlit sea.

Other students worked through the night collecting eggs from turtles nesting on the beach. The students roamed the beach looking for nesting turtles. They weren’t alone.

Egg poachers were out collecting eggs, too. Not long ago, egg collecting was legal in Mexico and today sea turtle eggs are delicacy sold on the black market. This made the students’ job a life or death situation for the turtles. Each nest they got to was one the poachers didn’t.

As the mother turtle began digging her nest, the students dug a hole right behind her. When she laid an egg, they took it and put in their hole. This way when the mother turtle covered her nest, she wasn’t covering her eggs.

“They (turtles) were in a trance,” Vander Zanden said. “They were totally oblivious to the fact that we were there.”

Each turtle laid about 100 eggs, which were taken to the nursery and reburied for hatching. During the club’s stay, 25 nests were collected and 45 eggs hatched.

“I learned how the environment works. It’s really sad, we’ve made it so these turtles need help to do what they should naturally be able to do,” Neer said.

The students said they gained a lot from the trip.

“We’re already planning our trip for next year,” said Eareckson, the club adviser.

Advancing rural health in Northeast Washington and beyond

Access to health care across rural Washington is a growing challenge.

Perth's hot, dry conditions blamed for 100 turtle deaths at Bibra Lake wetlands

Record-breaking heat and drying wetlands have been blamed for the death of more than 100 turtles native to Western Australia, with wildlife authorities now in a race to protect the reptiles.

Bibra Lake in Perth's southern suburbs has in the past been a safe haven for the southwestern snake-necked turtles, but the animals have been forced to relocate due to the wetland becoming near-bone dry.

Over the weekend, volunteer members of the Bibra Lake Turtle Trackers came across 118 dead turtles lying on the lake bed.

Vets have been assessing the bodies and shell fragments, with 95 so far determined to have been killed by foxes during migration attempts, according to WA Wildlife.

Experts said the lucky turtles who evaded fox attacks often end up as roadkill, squashed by oncoming traffic.

Dr Anthony Santoro from Murdoch University, who is project lead on the Saving Our Snake-Necked Turtles Project, said the deaths represented around 10 to 15 per cent of the Bibra Lake's southwestern snake-necked turtle population.

"This specific finding highlights the very real impact that climate change and predation can have on a species and it also shows how, when they're combined in instances like this, the impact can just multiple exponentially," he said.

"This is going to have a massive impact on the future viability of the population, it's going to have a much higher chance that the local population will go locally extinct."

"It's likely not going to be an isolated event, there's lakes dry throughout Perth, there's foxes everywhere so this is likely happening at multiple lakes and will continue to happen in the future as we continue to dry and there continue to be foxes.

Dr Santoro said this particular species was endemic to WA – their habitat known to run from Jurien Bay down to Albany – and were vital to the local biodiversity in which they are found.

"These turtles are the top predator of our wetlands, so they kind of control everything below them," he said.

"They control our water quality, so they eat a lot when things die, so they don't let dying things rot and ruin water quality.

"It's like the wolves over in Yellowstone [in the USA], so when you lose them everything below kind of gets out of control."

The turtle has been classified as near threatened by the International Union of Conservation of Nature, but the population status has not been reviewed for 20 years.

Dr Santoro said a "massive collaborative effort" was needed to protect the species.

"At the moment everyone is doing it kind of just by themselves and it doesn't do anything because foxes travel between places so we need it to happen at once," he said.

"It's also highlighting a very real need to think about water into the future and how we manage that in terms of people's needs and environmental needs.

"Wetlands dry naturally, but they're dry too much and so that's going to have a massive impact on the flora and fauna.

"It also highlights the ongoing need to monitor these turtle populations, because we currently just aren't doing it enough."

Water levels critical

The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) has found Bibra Lake's water levels failed to meet the absolute minimum standards for 2022-23, with non-compliant water levels recorded for the past three years.

The DWER data found Bibra Lake was dry during the autumnal period and contained a maximum of 0.3 metres of water at peak levels.

The state's south west has been recognised globally to have begun a drying trend in the 1970s, and Perth has marked a worrying milestone by recording the city's driest October-to-April period.

Bibra Lake Turtle Trackers volunteer and coordinator Joyce Gadalon became emotional when explaining the discovery of the dead turtles.

"I'm literally in tears just talking about it right now," she said.

"I found about 42 turtles to begin with and then made a call to … the rest of my team."

They found a total of   118 dead turtles.

"I know the Cockburn council have been implementing their fox program but it's quite a layered issue. There needs to be concerted efforts with other local governments, and the state government, as well and it needs to be properly funded," she said.

Solution 'complicated'

City of Cockburn environmental education officer Vicky Hartill said the city was dedicated to turtle conservation.

"In terms of foxes, it's complicated," she said.

"We do fox control management and we work with our surrounding land managers with their fox control program.

"They like to roam, they move, and they are a natural predator in our ecosystem."

Ms Hartill said the city has extended its fox control program for the autumn season and other conservation options would be explored.

"But we're not in a normal year. This is a drying climate. And this is a new benchmark for us to look at ways where we can improve not only feral animal control, but turtle conservation across the board," she said.

Dean Huxley from WA Wildlife helps rehabilitate the turtles who can be saved, and said he'd never seen conditions this extreme, having lived in the Bibra Lake area his whole life.

"It's horrible. We are here trying to save animals and microchips tell us some of the ones found are actually some of our ex-patients," he said.

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Thinking of going to Moscow?

By scubacruiserx2 , October 11, 2013 in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea

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scubacruiserx2

We thought about it and did it September 21, 2013. We would like to share how we did it and explore options on how to visit this great city.

Because we were staying in St. Petersburg, we chose a "Day Trip".

We found a guide on the internet and contacted her. We asked her the best way and day to visit Moscow. We agreed Saturday would be good and the Sapsan train is the preferred way to travel. We booked our e-tickets for the train on the internet.

The day began early with an accuweather check. It showed brilliant sun all day - in St. Petersburg (1 of only 35 days a year) and rain all day in Moscow. Walking to the Metro station we began the long ride down to the underground train.

The early morning Metro

This is the Moscow train station in St. Petersburg

And here is the Sapsan at rest

After scanning our tickets and a walk through a metal detector ( which we set off) we walked to wagon #3. Showing our passports to the attendant , we were seated by 0630 and ready to ride !

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After we were seated we received this overhead greeting

Russian Railways welcomes you aboard ! We soon found out that every thing would be in Russian first and then in English. Our launch time was reached - and we were off.

Here is some information about the Sapsan

http://www.russiantrains.com/en/page/sapsan-train

As the sun began to rise we saw some fog , but a clear sky just outside of St. Petersburg @ 125 mph.

We settled in for the 4 hour train ride to Moscow.

Appreciate your posting of these visuals in connection with your rail trip to Moscow and back. As noted below, we did this "adventure" in 2008 via the air routes. Keep sharing your nice and interesting visuals. Below are a few of mine showing the "prizes" to be enjoyed in Moscow. Fortunately, we had three days on our cruise stop in St. Petersburg, making this one-day trip work better.

The high-speed train connection does make a big, big difference currently. We did the one-day Moscow trip in 2008 by the air connections. I'll offer up some added background, along with various pro/con factors for your consideration. My wife thought it was lots of money, but she viewed it as very much worth it after completing the trip as a "once in a lifetime" experience.

CON FACTORS : It's a long day! Leave the ship early (greeted by a small welcoming band dockside); get back to the St. Petersburg airport around midnight and back to the ship a little before 1 am. Moscow is a super large city of over ten million people. There has been huge growth in the suburbs of this city during the past decades or so. Traffic and time from the airport to the main downtown takes about an hour, but the train takes your directly into the heart of this large city. Since we had to drive in from the airport, we had a good feel as we traveled into town through the coach windows about the “new Moscow” with its suburban growth, commerce, advertising, capitalism, big box stores, etc.

PRO FACTORS : Moscow has its unique history, sights and sites, from Ivan the Terrible up through Lenin, Stalin and the new Russian leaders of today. After a long ride in from the airport on the outer edge of this large metro areas of 17.3 million (with 10.5 million in the city), we stopped at a new hotel for coffee/tea/break. Then, we rode the Moscow subway and saw a couple of their very unique and artistic stations. Stalin at the time called these stations “People’s Palaces”. This Moscow Metro was first opened in 1935 and now has 182 stations, 12 different lines,187 miles of routes and carries seven million passengers each weekday. It’s the world second busiest subway system. This subway ride offered a good sampling of real life for people who live and work in Moscow. We then saw more key places enroute, including the home of the Bolshoi Ballet, KGB Headquarters, various Stalin-era buildings, etc. Then we went to the Kremlin with its 19 historic towers. WOW, we were really there!

Inside the Kremlin are three key “super stars”. First, was the State Armoury with its spectacular Faberge Eggs, plus so many carriages, crowns, gowns, jewels, etc. Second are the various historic Cathedrals within the Kremlin Walls, plus the Tower Bells, Icon art, etc. This includes the Cathedral of the Annunciation built in the 1480’s and having such spectacular wall murals and icons. Third, was the Great Kremlin Palace with its spectacular reception halls, inlaid wood floors, gold and more gold, fancy ceilings, etc. The Czars were crowned here, plus the current heads of the Russian government, etc. The size and scale of these areas are hard to describe in words, let alone reflect and capture the history that has happened in some of these rooms dating back to the late 1400’s. We have seen lots of great palaces all over Europe, but this is something above and beyond for the eyes, heart and brain.

Then, we saw more building inside the walls of the Kremlin. We went outside of the Kremlin Walls and walked next door to adjoining Red Square, seeing St. Basil’s and the re-done Gum Department Store. Red Square is so historic, especially having grown up seeing the military May Day parades there, visuals of Lenin’s Tomb, etc. Have the words “spectacular” and historic been used too much? Maybe, but it fits for many of these unique places. St. Basil’s was built 1555–1561 on the order of Ivan IV (the Terrible). It was the tallest building in Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (266 feet tall) in 1600 inside the Kremlin Walls. To be able to “CONTRAST” and compare Moscow and St. Petersburg during these three short days adds to the benefits of seeing both of these great Russian capital cities. Each is a very different and special city.

We finished with dinner in the Central Writers’ Club, a one hundred years old mansion made into a restaurant with crystal chandeliers, rich wood panelling, fireplaces, and antique balustrades.

Is one day too short and limited? YES! You can, however, do and see lots in only that one short day. You get a small sampling above. How often do you get to Russia? The Cold War might not come back in full force, but there are going to be increasing and revisited tensions in future years involving Russia and getting access there. They have done this tour many times and have its details down well and timing perfected. Let us know any questions, thoughts or reactions.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 120,278 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Walking on the famed Red Square of Moscow. This square separates the Kremlin, as the former royal citadel and the current official residence for Russia's President, from a historic merchant quarter. Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and all of Russia, because Moscow's major streets originate from here. The name Red Square comes neither from the color of the bricks nor from the link between the color red and communism. The name came about because of a Russian word that can mean either "red" or "beautiful". This word, per Wikipedia, has the meaning "beautiful", was originally applied to Saint Basil's Cathedral. Then, later, the meaning was transferred to the nearby square. It is believed that the square acquired its current name in the 17th century. Red Square was the leading stage and trade center for Moscow. Ivan the Great decreed that trade should only be conducted from person to person, but later these rules were relaxed and permanent market buildings began appearing on the square. After a fire in 1547, Ivan the Terrible reorganized the lines of wooden shops on the Eastern side into market lines and part of that transitioned into what is now GUM department store that adjoins this famed square.:

St. Basil's sits on Red Square and dates back to its 1555-61 construction on the orders of Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV). It commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan and marks the geometric center of the city. This location has been the hub of its growth for Moscow since the 14th century. It was the tallest building in Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600. This church was near destroyed in the 1930’s when Stalin was in control.:

The domes of the historic church inside the walls of the Kremlin:

This is the interior for Moscow's most historic church, Assumption Cathedral or the Cathedral of the Dormition, inside the Kremlin walls. It is the mother church of Muscovite Russia. The church stands on Cathedral Square and was built in 1475–1479 by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti. It was erected on the spot of an older 14th century cathedral of the same name:

The famed KGB (Secret Police) Headquarters in Moscow where many entered and did not exit (alive) during the 1950’s and 1960’s:

Here is a small sampling of the Kremlin Royal Treasures of the Czars: Eggs & Jewels inside the famed State Armoury in Moscow. One of the oldest museums in Moscow, it was established in 1808 and located within the Kremlin Walls. It originated as the royal arsenal in 1508 during when it was in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons, jewelry and various household articles of the Tsars. There are ten Fabergé eggs in the Armoury collection (all Imperial eggs). This is the most Imperial eggs, and the second-most overall Fabergé eggs, owned by a single owner. The Trans-Siberian Railway Egg is a jeweled Easter egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé in 1900 for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It was presented by Nicolas II as an Easter gift to his wife. The exterior of the 1900 Trans-Siberian Railway egg is made of onyx, silver, gold, and quartz, and is decorated with colored vitreous enamel. The lid of the egg is hinged, has an overlay of green enamel, and is decorated with inlaid leaves of acanthus. On top of the lid is a golden three-headed eagle in gold with the Imperial Crown. The interior is lined with velvet. A route map of the Trans-Siberian Railway is engraved in silver across the face, with major stations marked by a precious stone, forming a belt around the egg. The egg is supported by three griffins made of gold-plated silver on a stepped triangular base of white onyx.:

Scuba and Terry, thanks for sharing the information and beautiful pictures.

One question... I assume the one day tour is similar to the St Petersburg tours, in that you don't need to obtain a Russian Visa if you are booked through a Russian tour agency?

Scuba and Terry, thanks for sharing the information and beautiful pictures. One question... I assume the one day tour is similar to the St Petersburg tours, in that you don't need to obtain a Russian Visa if you are booked through a Russian tour agency?

Appreciate the nice comments and good question from our friend in Las Vegas. YES , if your cruise is there three days or less . . . A ND . . . you are with a licensed travel/tour firm , then there is no need to do a Russian Visa. You cannot take that one- or two-day train to Moscow and back unless you either have a visa or are with an appropriate such firm traveling with you.

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik . Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 144,153 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

The announcements on the train requested turning off phones. We quietly greeted and introduced ourselves (In Russian) to our table mates . It seems that we were the token foreign passengers and we quickly realized that on the train (Like most public transport), people don't usually speak unless they have a question or know one another. Even when they do it's respectful of others privacy with no loud talking or phone calls." I could get used to this" I thought to myself. Reading was the norm and listening to music was socially acceptable. Out came the Eyewitness Travel Moscow and cued Al Stewart's Road to Moscow on the mp3. After a quick nap and a snack we noticed that the movie Moscow does not believe in tears was playing on the TV and people were seemed surprised that we knew the movie.

The next thing we knew, the train was arriving in Moscow !

Exiting the train , we headed for the station.

Irina was waiting for us at the end of the platform and it was starting to rain. " Welcome to Moscow and it's weather" she said. " Nine months of expectations and three months of disappointment" she remarked. We headed to the Metro for a tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro

As you can see , at 11 in the morning and we still had an empty Metro. Saturday or Sunday is the way to tour Moscow with a minimum of crowds

The first station that we visited was Komsomolskaya which is named for the Communist Youth League

Here is a mosaic from the ceiling

And at the end of the station was comrade Lenin

The Kievskaya Station is dedicated to the friendship between Russia and the Ukraine and is named after it's Capital - Kiev

It features idealized mosaics in the Soviet realism style

The Ukraine was the bread basket of the Soviet Union so agriculture and handicraft is displayed prominently in it's mosaics.

Because it is on the ring line #5 , it connects with #3 and #4 line and can get very busy.

Desertbelle

Thank you for these wonderful reviews. We are going to St. Petersburg for two days on the Brilliance next May. We have decided we want to go to Moscow for one of the days....your great photos make me want to go even more now! :D

The train ride of 8 hours (4 hours one way) and only 8 hours in Moscow doesn't sound perfect. Should we look for a tour guide who will take us by plane? Any recommendations? We would not want to undertake this on our own.

Thank you for these wonderful reviews. We are going to St. Petersburg for two days on the Brilliance next May. We have decided we want to go to Moscow for one of the days....your great photos make me want to go even more now! :D   The train ride of 8 hours (4 hours one way) and only 8 hours in Moscow doesn't sound perfect. Should we look for a tour guide who will take us by plane? Any recommendations? We would not want to undertake this on our own.

Congratulations on your upcoming TA and Baltic cruise and thank you for your kind comments. We did a TA in April of 2009 , followed by a 10 day stay in St. Petersburg. It's really a great time for the weather. Going to Moscow from St. Petersburg on a 2 day stay is going to be an either/ or proposition. Unless you can do a post cruise stay , it will be either Moscow or St. Petersburg . If its your first visit to Russia , we would recommend that you stay in St. Petersburg. It will save you travel time and money and there is more than enough to do in 2 days. If you decide on Moscow , many of the cruise ship offer this trip. We don't normally use or recommend the ship's tours but Moscow would be an exception. Few if any private tours offer this option for 2 days. If you chose to DIY with a Visa you could fly and meet the guide in Moscow and stay overnight. The problem with a 2 day stay is that Sapsan leaves before your ship arrives in port on the first day and arrives after your ship leaves on the second day. A more radical plan that we considered was to jump ship (With the Captain's permission) with a Russian Visa and stay longer in St. Petersburg / Moscow. Because we wanted more time in Russia , we cancelled our post TA Baltic cruise and just stayed in St. Petersburg.

Our last Metro stop before entering Red Square was Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Square of the Revolution). The hall contains life size sculptures of 'everyday people' who made The Revolution and the Metro possible.

Rubbing the nose of this border guards dog is said to bring good luck. I was amazed to see how many people touched this dogs nose after we stepped away.

This last 'every day person' is Lyudmila Pavlichenko who was credited with 309 kills as a sniper during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko

Upon leaving the Metro station we were greeted by a steady rain and it was time to pop the umbrellas. After entering through The Resurrection Gate we stopped to take a picture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_Gate_and_Chapel

And turning around , there is was - Red Square ! I felt like like Dorothy opening the door in OZ. All of my childhood fears of ICBM rockets , goose stepping troops , 1 PM air raid sirens on Saturday , bomb shelters and duck and cover drills at school flooded my memory! Focusing on the task at hand , I had to learn to shoot pictures with one hand while holding an umbrella with the other. The first picture is Marshal Zhukov , a war hero

mounted on a horse , in front of The Historical Museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Zhukov

Kazan Cathedral was consecrated in 1636 by Prince Pozharsky and stood for 300 years until Joseph Stalin destroyed it in 1936. This faithful reconstruction was completed and consecrated in 1993.

There was a sea of umbrellas watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I could only get a picture by holding the camera overhead. If you look carefully, you can see his rifle beneath his raincoat.

The crowd thinned as they quickly marched away

But I sprinted ahead to capture a video clip

It was raining harder so we headed for GUM in hopes that the rain would abate.

GUM (pronounced goom) was the name given to this building after the Revolution in 1921. It was built in 1893 and currently has over 1000 shops. A banner proclaims 120 years.

This was one of my favorite photos of our trip. Watching a game of Bridal tug of war.

Maybe they were here shopping for this Mother In Law Cake. It features poisonous mushrooms on top ( I think they are sugar but didn't try them ).

We moved on to Yeliseev's Gastronom. The original store is in St. Petersburg.

http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/business/grigory-yeliseev/

This is their souvenir shop

With no sign of the rain stopping it was time to pop the umbrellas and head out to Red Square. The square is about 500 yards long.

The small platform in front of St. Basil's is called The Lobnoe Mesto. It is where the Tsar and patriarch would address the people at various times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobnoye_Mesto

Even in the rain and overcast skies the cathedral is striking !

To the right of the photo is The Savior's Tower. It was the main entrance to the Kremlin and stands 230 feet tall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasskaya_Tower

We thought we would go inside of St. Basils to dodge rain and see what the interior looked like. Here's the porch.

Fancy doors

Iconostasis

And here is a view of Red Square with everything labeled

Wow! What else can be said. The photos and your trip are amazing! We have booked a Baltic cruise for June, 2014. We had not considered going to Moscow and after reading your blog, we are still not. BUT if we ever are lucky enough to come back sometime, it will definitely be on our TO DO list! Thank you for sharing the pics, vids and memories!

Jim and Pam

Hi: I am new to CC and we are going on our first cruise in June 2014 with Crystal Cruises. Scuba - I would like to find out more about your Moscow trip - not sure how one goes about emailing here, but could you please email me at [email protected] ?

Welcome to Cruise Critic ! We are honored to be your first post. Don't be afraid to ask questions and browse the threads on CC. They are many experienced people willing to help and share with your upcoming trip. We are emailing now.

Wow! What else can be said. The photos and your trip are amazing! We have booked a Baltic cruise for June, 2014. We had not considered going to Moscow and after reading your blog, we are still not. BUT if we ever are lucky enough to come back sometime, it will definitely be on our TO DO list! Thank you for sharing the pics, vids and memories!   Jim and Pam

Hi Jim and Pam, how was the Fall in Michigan this year ? DW is a Michigander and we met in Michigan. We love spending the fall there. Congratulations on your Baltic cruise. We fell in love with St. Petersburg when we visited there on our 2006 cruise. You will have 2 full and enjoyable days there. Is it possible to do a post cruise stay in Moscow or St. Pete. ? We wished that we did when we first went because there a lot that we missed and wanted to see things at our own pace. It would be much quicker and cheaper to fly from Copenhagen than another transatlantic flight from Michigan. If you have not seen our thread on St. Petersburg - you may want to check it out.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1775172

In front of St. Basil's Cathedral is a statue of a butcher Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitniy Pozharskiy. When Moscow was occupied in 1612 by the Polish Army , they raised a volunteer group to repel the invaders.

To me, the most amazing church in Moscow is The Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

After Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 , the strategy of retreat and destroy (scorched earth) was employed by Russia to allow Napoleon to enter Moscow. He found it in ruins - burned by the residents. When winter arrived on October 19, Napoleon began the long retreat to France. Along the way with no food , the winter and the Russian people attacking , the French troops were decimated. 600,000 troops had entered Russia and less than 60,000 left alive. To celebrate the victory Tsar Alexander ordered the Cathedral built to thank Christ for the victory.

In 1931 Joseph Stalin blew up the cathedral to build a skyscraper - The Palace of the Soviets , that would be taller than The Empire State Building. It would feature a giant statue of Lenin on top. The plans were abandoned when Germany invaded in 1941. After the war , it became a giant pool when construction was needed for housing. It was rebuilt beginning in 1995 , and was completed in 2000.

There was a crowd at the door and we waited in the rain and cold. It was beautiful inside (no pictures allowed). We stayed about an hour and the crowd had left and we took the second picture in the rain. A quick Metro ride to the train station and we said goodbye to our guide Irina.

http://www.newbyzantines.net/byzcathculture/christsavior.html

We returned to St. Petersburg on the Sapsan 1st Class. It included dinner , a drink and internet connections. The internet only works with a Russian phone service - so it did not work for us. The chairs reclined , so we got a nice nap after a long day.

Hi Jim and Pam, how was the Fall in Michigan this year ? DW is a Michigander and we met in Michigan. We love spending the fall there. Congratulations on your Baltic cruise. We fell in love with St. Petersburg when we visited there on our 2006 cruise. You will have 2 full and enjoyable days there. Is it possible to do a post cruise stay in Moscow or St. Pete. ? We wished that we did when we first went because there a lot that we missed and wanted to see things at our own pace. It would be much quicker and cheaper to fly from Copenhagen than another transatlantic flight from Michigan. If you have not seen our thread on St. Petersburg - you may want to check it out.   http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1775172

Ok, so now that I spent hours looking at and reading your posts, I see why you suggest a post tour. There is no way to see everything in only 2 days. But thank you so much for your information on SPB. We are really looking forward to our visit and want to get the most out of it.

We had snow flurries today in Michigan. Our fall was pretty short which means winter will be pretty long. We will survive though because we have 2 cruises to look forward to... Caribbean in February and the Baltic in June!

Thanks again for the great photo review and tips! I'll keep reading...

Ok, so now that I spent hours looking at and reading your posts, I see why you suggest a post tour. There is no way to see everything in only 2 days. But thank you so much for your information on SPB. We are really looking forward to our visit and want to get the most out of it.   We had snow flurries today in Michigan. Our fall was pretty short which means winter will be pretty long. We will survive though because we have 2 cruises to look forward to... Caribbean in February and the Baltic in June!   Thanks again for the great photo review and tips! I'll keep reading...   Jim

It sounds like a couple of great cruises coming your way. The Western Carib. is our most common trip cause we dive in all 4 ports. It's a great way for you to beat that long winter ! My wife's sister (from Bay City) does a girl cruise every winter to beat the cold and avoid the Spring breakers. We would encourage you to prioritize in St. Petersburg - you won't get to see it all in 2 days so pick the best for you. Please know your camera well before you visit ! The sites will come fast and furious so you want to catch them all. I had some new lenses and made some rookie mistakes and muffed some good shots ! If we can answer any questions - give us a holler. Joe

Thank you for your great report and photos! We will be in St. Petersburg for 3 days next June on Legend of the Seas. I arranged private tours in St. Petersburg on days 1 and 3, and to Moscow on day 2 - all with Alla Tours. I previously visited St. Petersburg in 2005, and am especially looking forward to visiting Moscow this trip.

Good to know that Nancy has these great Russian locations on her future, upcoming list. That assumes she survives her earlier “down under” visit, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Celebrity Solstice sailing, departing Sydney, going from Australia to Auckland/NZ doing 14 days on this ship we loved in the Med in June 2011. Nancy will be "riding" with us on this Aust-NZ cruise. Will share more on Russia with Nancy while we are sailing on this early 2014 adventure.

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 123,372 views.

Sounds like the perfect plan NancyIL ! Maybe something old and something new in St. Petersburg and something Red in Moscow! Did anyone watch Miss Universe in Moscow ? We enjoyed seeing the locale shots at night - something that we missed on our day trip. It also confirmed what we observed when we were there. Moscow like St. Petersburg has the majority of it's main sites located in a very small area. Catherine's Palace , Peterhof and Moscow require an amount of travel time equal or greater than the time spent there. There is the additional cost to Moscow as well. But it's great that you have 3 days and have seen some of St. Petersburg before so it made your decision easy. If you look at the map of Moscow you will see that most of the sites are very close together

and can be seen in a day, but Petersburg requires several days or more for maximum enjoyment.

Red Square and The Kremlin are next to each other and , in the lower left corner, is The Cathedral of Christ the Savior - all within walking distance.

We will be taking the Sapsan from Moscow to St. Petersburg next summer. Is there much of a difference between first class and coach? We're booked in coach as the TA says there's not all that much difference for the money. Also, do you have any opinion on whether to ride on the left or right, facing forward, headed to St. Petersburg? I want to get the best views.

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