Sea turtles have survived in our oceans for over 120 million years despite facing many natural hazards. Their unique life-cycle, body shape, strength and tenacity have enabled them to survive and adapt to a constantly changing natural environment, while many other animals have become extinct.

In the past, great numbers of sea turtles flourished in oceans around the world but today the story is different. Many populations are now experiencing serious threats to their survival.

Largely as a result of increased human activity sea turtle numbers today are greatly reduced worldwide and there is a danger that some populations will disappear altogether - the long term future of sea turtles is uncertain.

Greater awareness of these threats and subsequent changes in human behaviour toward sea turtles is therefore paramount.

There are seven species roaming the oceans today.

1. The Green Turtle
2. The Loggerhead Turtle
3. The Hawksbill Turtle
4. The Flatback Turtle
5. The Olive Ridley Turtle
6. The Leatherback Turtle
7. The Kemps Ridley Turtle

• Sea turtles range in size from the Kemp’s Ridley at about 40 kilograms in weight and 65 centimetres long, to the huge Leatherback, which can reach a tonne in weight and 2 metres in length.
  • The shell is strong, light and streamlined.
  • It provides protection, buoyancy and the ability to slip through the water with minimum effort.
  • The back or top shell is called the carapace, and the bottom is called the plastron.
  • The shell is made of flattened bones covered in horny plates called scutes.
  • The Leatherback turtle’s shell, however, has a lot of small bones embedded in a leathery skin that form five distinct ridges running the length of the shell.

• The strong, paddle shaped front flippers power a sea turtle through the water whilst the smaller rear flippers are used for steering and digging nest chambers.
• The ‘tears’ often seen around a sea turtle’s eyes when it is on land come from special glands located near the tear ducts, which excrete excess salt ingested as a result of swallowing seawater during foraging.
• Sea turtles have no teeth. Their mouths have been modified to either shear food, such as sponges and sea grass, as is the case with Hawksbill and Green Turtles, or to crush food such as crustaceans and gastropods, as is the case with Loggerheads and Olive Ridley Turtles.
• Although we know about their activities when they come ashore to breed, little is known of their ocean activities.
• We do know that they are true nomads and have a complex life cycle.
  • The young of most sea turtle species drift and feed in the open ocean until they reach about dinner plate size, when they settle near inshore feeding grounds.
  • They grow slowly and often take between 30 – 50 years to reach sexual maturity.
  • They live for years in the one place before they are ready to make the long breeding migration from the feeding grounds to nesting beaches, which can be hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometres away.
  • Most female sea turtles do not breed every year.

• There are only a few large nesting populations of Green, Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Leatherback turtles left in the world.
• Australia has some of the largest sea turtle nesting areas in the world and has the only nesting populations of the Flatback Turtle.

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