1. The green sea turtle got its name because of the greenish color of its cartilage and the fat deposits around its internal organs. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Chelonia Family: Cheloniidae Genus: Chelonia Species: mydas Subspecies: mydas mydas, mydas agassizii This image courtesy of Nisbet Business ServicesNisbet Business Services A green sea turtle infected with the fibropapillomas virus fibropapillomas virus

2. This image courtesy of Lost Horizons Resorts Green sea turtle hatchlings An ecosystem is the interrelationship between a community of living organisms. Whereas if one animal or plant were completely taken away from the ecosystem, all the others could be affected over time.

3. Traveling? Keep your purchases legal! http://alaska.fws.gov/LawEnforcement/factsheets/buyerbeware.cfm The green turtle has been used for our consumption, through capture during commercial shrimp trawling, egg poaching, and erosion of nesting beaches. Mechanical raking of nesting beaches can result in compact sand and cause tire rots, which may hinder or trap hatchlings.

4. The diet preferred by the adult green turtle is marine algae and grasses, while the juvenile’s diet mostly consists of jellyfish, sponges, snails, worms, and small mollusks (The Animal Diversity Web, 1995-2001). As an adult the Green Turtle is strictly a herbivorous sea turtle (herbivorous meaning plant-eating or feeding on plants).

5. This image courtesy of MIR Mating green sea turtles  Nesting season is normally in May and June.  Courtship occurs for the male and female by nuzzling their heads or gently biting their flippers and neck.  To guarantee fertilization a female will often mate with several males.  Once every three years the female lays her eggs far above the high tide line.  The sea is where the male always stays.  The female uses her flippers to dig a hole and there she lays about 100 eggs.  Once hatched, the green sea turtle crawls directly towards the water where it spends most of its adult life.  Incubation is normally 50-70 days.  Eggs hatch at night. Courtesy: California Turtle and Tortoise Club, 1992