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Indo-Pacific Marine Turtles - There are six species of Marine Turtles.
Scientific Name: Caretta caretta
Loggerhead populations nesting in Queensland are genetically different from those nesting in southern Japan, South Africa and Western Australia. There is no interbreeding between groups. This means that a major decline in numbers of Queensland loggerheads is very serious as numbers cannot be replenished from other turtle breeding stocks.
Distinctive features:
Large head in relation to most other turtles. Adults can weigh between 70kg and 200kg, having a shell length between 81cm to 125cm.
Feeding Distribution:
Found in tropical and subtropical seas worldwide including waters off the east, north and west coast of Australia and around the Great Barrier Reef.
Habitat:
Coral reefs, bays and estuaries.
Food:
Shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish.
Nesting Distribution:
Principal South Pacific nesting site is on Wreck Island in the Capricorn Group. Mon Repos, and other islands of the Capricorn-Bunkers are also important breeding sites.
Eggs:
A Loggerhead will lay 125 ping-pong ball-sized eggs a clutch.
Hatchlings:
Brown, dark brown or black. The shell is between 4 to 5 cm long.
Scientific Name:Nattator depressus
Flatbacks are only found in Australia. They along with the Kemp's ridley, only found in the west Atlantic are the only sea turtles that don't have global distribtuion.
Distinctive features:
Shell flattened with upturned edges and covered by a thin fleshy skin. Adults can weigh between 70kg and 200kg, having a shell length between 81cm to 125cm.
Feeding distribution:
Mostly found in tropical and subtropical water over the continental shelf along Australia's northern half. Only breeds in Australia.
Habitat:
Shallow costal waters away from reefs.
Food:
Soft corals, sea-pens and jellyfish
Nesting Distribution:
Most important nesting sites are in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait. Large rookeries occur on islands off the central Queensland Coast.
Eggs:
A flatback lays approximatley 50 to 90 billiard ball-sized eggs a clutch.
Hatchlings:
Grey above and below with shell plates on back boldly outlined in black. There shell can be between 5.5cm and 6.5cm long.
Scientific Name:Chelonia Mydas
Green turtles are the only true herbivourous sea turtle. Their feeding grounds extend into the Pacific, where they are commonly taken for their meat and eggs.
Distinctive features:
Shell head in relation to body. Shell relatively high domed and olive green with darker variations. Adults can also weigh between 70kg and 200kg, having a shell length between 81cm to 125cm.
Feeding distribution:
Found in tropical and subtropical seas worldwide. Abundant along the tropical coasts of Australia and on the Great Barrier Reef.
Habitat:
Seaweed-rich coral reefs and inshore seagrass pastures.
Food:
Seaweeds and seagrasses.
Nesting Distribution:
In South Queensland, North West, Wreck and Hoskyn Islands are major breeding areas. In north Queensland, Raine Island and Moulter Cay, Southbanks No.7 and 8 and Bramble Cay are significant breeding areas. In the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Bountiful, Pisonia and Rocky Island are important for breeding in Australia. Green turtles are the most common nesting species on southern Great Barrier Reef islands.
Eggs:
Lays approximately 115 ping-pong ball-sized eggs.
Hatchlings:
Black above and white below. Shell is between 4.5cm and 5.3cm long.
Scientific Name: Ertmochelys Imbricata.
Their attrctive transparent scales makes the hawlksbill commercially valuable.
Distinctive features:
Small narrow-beaked head and thick, overlapping scales often amber streaked with brown and black.
Distribution:
Tropical Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Habitat:
Rocky places and coral reefs.
Food:
Specialises in sponges, but also eats soft corals, shellfish, sea squirts, molluscs, seagrass and algae. The pointed jaws are well adapted to prising their food from crevices in and around coral.
Nesting Distribution:
Hawlksbills nest on Torres Strait islands and the northern Great Barrier Reef, and isolated nestings as far south as Princess Charlotte Bay.
Eggs:
A green tutles lays about 132 small round eggs.
Hatchlings:
Dark brown with light brown on the back and sometimes darl spots.
Scientific Name: Dermochelys coriacea
The leatherback is the largest living species of turtle weighing up to more than 500kg. Its leathery shell is lighter than those of other species. The flippers are long and well-muscled for swimming long distances across oceans.
Distinctive features:
The largest of the sea turtles. Soft leathery shell with longitudinal ridges and notched jaws for grasping jellyfish.
Feeding distribution:
Furthest migrating sea turtle, travelling great distances from temperate feeding grounds to tropical breeding grounds.
Habitat:
Ocean-going, pursuing its main diet of jellyfish that drift in ocean currents.
Food:
Mainly jellyfish, some other invertebrates.
Nesting Distribution:
Not often recorded in Australia. The numerous leatherbacks in Australia are thought to breed in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Eggs:
Lays approximately 83 very large eggs and about 47 small yolkless eggs.
Hatchlings:
Black with rows of white scales highlighting the ridges on the 5.1 - 6.52cm shell.
Scientific Name: Lepidochelys olivacea
The smallest and possibly the most numerous of the sea turtles on a world scale but probably the rarest in Australian waters.
Distinctive features:
The almost round olive-grey shell is domed from the front.
Feeding distribution:
Tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Captured regularly in prawn trawls in the gulf of Carpentaria.
Habitat:
Prefers shallow, protected waters.
Food:
Small crabs and shellfish.
Nesting Distribution:
Nests along the west coast of Cape York Peninsula and in the Wellesley Group. The main nesting site in Australia is off north-west Arnhem Land.
Eggs:
Lays approximately 109 round eggs.
Hatchlings:
Normally grey-black to olive-black.
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