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Sea turtles live in the ocean

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Swim.

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How are sea turtles born?

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Amazing Video!!

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New Born, Baby Sea Turtles Race to the Ocean!

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More Interesting Facts by Ranger Rick

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by Kathy Kranking

Using its flippers as wings, this green sea turtle ( above) "flies" gracefully through the water. There are seven species of sea turtles-the Kemp's ridley, olive ridley, loggerhead, hawksbill, flatback, green, and leatherback- and they live in most ocean waters around the world. Some of these ancient reptiles are homebodies, hanging out in shallow coastal waters their whole lives. Others are wanderers that travel hundreds or even thousands of miles every year.

SHELL STORY
The first thing you notice about a sea turtle is its big, beautiful shell. And that brings up one of the main differences between sea turtles and most other kinds of turtles. Most turtles have shells like houses that they can pull their heads and limbs into. But a sea turtle can't pull into its shell at all.

The shells of most kinds of sea turtles are made of bone and cartilage (the same bendable stuff your ears are made of.) These are covered with thin plates called scutes. But the leatherback's shell is different. Its shell is made up of cartilage and tiny bones, but covering these is a layer of leathery skin.

SUITED FOR THE SEA
Sea turtles breathe air with lungs, just as you do. But they can hold their breath a lot longer than you ever could. The green sea turtle is the champ: It can stay underwater for as long as five hours! To swim, sea turtles use their strong, paddle-shaped front flippers. Their hind flippers help with steering.

But sea turtles are more than just great swimmers. Some of them are great divers. The leatherback can dive more than a thousand feet deep, looking for food. That's more than the length of three football fields. And its deepest dives can be three times deeper than that!

CHOW TIME
Did someone mention food? Depending on the species, sea turtles can be animal-eaters, plant-eaters, or both. They don't have teeth, but their beaks can give clues as to what they eat.

The sharp, strong beak of the loggerhead turtle, for example, is great for crushing the shells of crabs and shrimp. A hawksbill's narrow, pointed beak helps it pull prey such as sponges from tight spaces in a coral reef.

A leatherback has a soft, delicate beak-just the thing for eating squishy foods such as jellyfish. And the green sea turtle's jagged-edged beak is great for snipping sea grasses and scraping algae off coral and rocks.

The green sea turtle at top left grazes on algae growing on lava rock. A hawksbill sea turtle has a sharp point at the end of its narrow beak ( above). The beak is similar to a bird's beak, which is how the turtle got its name.

Don't worry-the leatherback sea turtle at top right isn't crying. Like all sea turtles, it gets rid of extra salt in its body by squeezing salty fluid out of glands near its eyes. The leatherback is the biggest of all sea turtles. Check out the size of the one above right!

NESTING TIME
Sea turtles spend almost their entire lives in the water. But when it's nesting time, the females come ashore to lay their eggs. They often return to the same beaches where they themselves hatched.

In most species, a female sea turtle comes ashore at night. She crawls clumsily along the sand. Next, she uses her flippers to dig a nest. Depending on the species, she lays from 50 to 200 round, white eggs. Then she covers them up with sand and lumbers back into the sea.

Later, the baby turtles hatch from the eggs and dig their way out of the nest. They crawl down to the shoreline, and then disappear into the waves.

TURTLE TROUBLES
Sea turtles have been around for millions of years. But these days they have their share of troubles. Many get caught in fishing nets or tangled in fishing lines. Turtles are also harmed by pollution, litter and oil spills. Lights along streets and on buildings near the beach can cause problems, too. Newly hatched babies can become lost and crawl toward the artificial light instead of toward the ocean where they belong.

Most kinds of female sea turtles come ashore alone to lay eggs. But olive ridley ( above left) and Kemp's ridley sea turtles come onto nesting beaches in huge numbers-sometimes in the thousands!

After digging a nest with her flippers, a female leatherback lays her eggs ( 1). She then covers the nest with sand ( 2). This newly hatched baby flatback ( 3) is digging out of its sandy nest.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
The good news is that lots of people are trying hard to help sea turtles. Many laws have been passed to protect them. In some places, for example, beach communities are required to turn off outside lights at night during nesting season. And to keep eggs safe from predators, pollution, and other dangers, people sometimes carefully dig them up and move them to "nurseries" protected by high fences.

Thanks to conservation efforts like these, sea turtle numbers are actually going up in some places. With a little luck, these ancient reptiles will be flapping through the sea for another hundred million years!

Leaving a trail of "flipper-prints," the baby leatherback ( top photo) crawls toward the sea. The flatback hatchling ( bottom photo) has found its way to the water to begin its new life.

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Sea Turtles - National Wildlife Federation

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by Kathy Kranking Using its flippers as wings, this green sea turtle ( above) "flies" gracefully through the water. There are seven species of sea turtles-the Kemp's ridley, olive ridley, loggerhead, hawksbill, flatback, green, and leatherback- and they live in most ocean waters around the world.

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Transcript

NARRATOR:

Did you know that sea turtles have been living on planet Earth since the time of the dinosaurs? - around 110 million years. There are seven different species of sea turtles, six of which -- green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and the olive ridley can be found throughout the ocean - in both warm and cool waters. The seventh species, the flatback, lives only in Australia.

What's amazing about sea turtles is that after years traveling the open ocean they return to the nesting grounds where they were born to lay their eggs. In their voyage from nesting to feeding grounds - some species will travel more than 1,000 miles.

But life is filled with danger for a sea turtle, especially the hatchlings. On the beach, birds, crabs, raccoons, even foxes will eat hatchlings. And if hatchlings make it to the ocean, they are still tasty snacks for seabirds and fish.

However, the greatest threats to sea turtles aren't from natural predators; they are from humans. Accidental catch in commercial fisheries or entanglement in marine debris are serious threats to sea turtles, as well as destruction of beach habitat, harvesting or poaching for meat and eggs, and even boat strikes.

But people aren't just sitting by, nations are working together to protect and conserve sea turtles. In 1981, an international agreement made it illegal to trade all seven species of sea turtles and their eggs, shells, or meat internationally.

Governments are figuring out ways to reduce bycatch such as requiring new designs of fishing gear and changes to fishing practices to make them less likely to capture turtles. And, marine protected areas are being established in important sea turtle habitats.

Conservation organizations are working with local communities to help change fishing practices as well as transition incomes away from turtle harvesting and toward turtle tourism. Other local efforts include: working to reduce sources of marine debris, monitoring sea turtle nests to protect them from poaching; and passing laws that prevent irresponsible development on known nesting beaches.

A healthy ocean depends on sea turtles. And sea turtles need our help.

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NARRATOR: Did you know that sea turtles have been living on planet Earth since the time of the dinosaurs? - around 110 million years. There are seven different species of sea turtles, six of which -- green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and the olive ridley can be found throughout the ocean - in both warm and cool waters.

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Science Facts about Sea Turtles

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Best facts about sea turtles
This fun and informative video explains a lot of lesser known facts about sea turtles. Sea turtles or sometimes called as Marine turtles are reptiles. They are one of the earth's most ancient creatures. They are found wherever you find warm and temperate waters throughout the world. They migrate hundreds of miles between nesting and feeding grounds. Most of their lives are spent in water. They are well adapted to the ocean though they require air to survive.
Quick Facts: -

The oldest known sea turtle fossils date back about 150 million years. It makes them on of the oldest creature on the earth.

There are 7 species of sea turtles.

They love to travel. A sea turtle can travel more than 10,000 miles every year.

Female sea turtles lay their eggs in the same nesting ground where they were born.

They can stay underwater up to 5 hours because they can hold their breath for a very long time. But their feeding dive can last only for 5 minutes.

An adult sea turtle can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.

Their eggs look like ping pong balls. Female turtles lay up to 150 eggs every two to three years.

According to an estimate, only one hatchling in thousand will make it to adulthood. So for them, it really is survival of the fittest.

Male sea turtle never come back to shore. They spend their entire life in the ocean itself.

They have some glands that help them to get rid of the extra salt from their eyes. It might seem that a turtle is crying but they are just doing some spring cleaning.

Their gender can be determined by checking how hot or cold their environment was while they were in their eggs. Warm temperature produces more female hatchling while a cooler temperature tends to produce more male hatchlings.

They live a solitary life. They are not territorial so it is common for them to overlap a piece of habitat with others.

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Best fun facts about sea turtles for kids

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Best facts about sea turtles This fun and informative video explains a lot of lesser known facts about sea turtles. Sea turtles or sometimes called as Marine turtles are reptiles. They are one of the earth's most ancient creatures. They are found wherever you find warm and temperate waters throughout the world.