Sea Turtle Facts for Kids

Sea turtles are reptiles that spend almost their whole lives in the ocean, coming ashore mainly to lay eggs. There are seven species, from the small Kemp’s ridley to the giant leatherback, and six of them are threatened with extinction, mostly because of human activities.

Sea turtle Quick Facts

Common name	Sea turtle
Type	Reptile (marine turtles)
Diet	Varies: seagrass, sponges, crabs, clams or jellyfish
Habitat	Warm seas; females nest on sandy beaches
Native range	All oceans except the polar regions
Size	From about 2 ft (100 lb) to 6 ft (over 1,000 lb)
Special feature	Salty tears remove extra sea salt

Built for the Ocean

Sea turtles are superbly adapted to life at sea. They breathe air, so they must come to the surface to breathe, but they can stay underwater for a long time. Instead of feet, they have strong flippers. The front flippers work like wings to “fly” through the water, while the back flippers help them steer. On land, they are slow and clumsy.

The seven species are the green, loggerhead, hawksbill, leatherback, olive ridley, Kemp’s ridley and flatback turtles.

How Big Do They Get?

Sea turtles vary a lot in size. The smallest are the Kemp’s ridley and olive ridley turtles, which are about 60 to 70 cm (2 feet) long and weigh around 35 to 45 kg (75 to 100 pounds).

The giant is the leatherback turtle, which can grow to about 1.8 meters (6 feet) long and weigh well over 450 kg (1,000 pounds). It is the largest turtle in the world.

Do They Have a Shell?

Most sea turtles have a hard, bony shell that protects them from predators. The top part is called the carapace and the bottom is the plastron. Depending on the species, the shell can be heart-shaped, oval or almost round. The leatherback is different: instead of hard plates, its shell is covered in thick, leathery skin.

Unlike many land and pond turtles, sea turtles cannot pull their heads or flippers inside their shells.

Where Do Sea Turtles Live?

Sea turtles live in every ocean except the icy waters near the poles. Most prefer warm tropical and subtropical seas. They nest on sandy beaches in many places, including Australia, Central and South America, the United States, Mexico, Africa and India.

The leatherback can handle colder water than any other reptile. It can keep its body warmer than the surrounding water, which lets it travel as far north as Alaska and Canada and as far south as Chile while hunting for jellyfish.

Amazing Journeys

Sea turtles are champion travelers. Some swim thousands of kilometers between feeding areas and nesting beaches. For example, some loggerheads that hatch in Japan cross the entire Pacific Ocean to feed off Baja California in Mexico, then swim all the way back to Japan to nest.

Even more amazing, female sea turtles usually return to nest on the same beach, or the same stretch of coast, where they hatched many years before. Scientists think they use Earth’s magnetic field like a built-in map to find their way.

Sometimes sea turtles turn up far from their usual homes. They may follow warm currents or food into new waters, be carried by storms or get swept along after being caught in fishing gear.

What Do They Eat?

Each species has its own favorite foods, and the shape of its jaws matches its diet:

• Loggerheads have powerful jaws for crushing hard-shelled prey such as clams, conchs and crabs.
• Green turtles eat mostly seagrass and algae as adults, which makes them the only mainly plant-eating sea turtles.
• Hawksbills use their narrow, bird-like beaks to pick sponges and other soft animals from coral reefs.
• Leatherbacks feed almost entirely on jellyfish and other soft-bodied animals.
• Kemp’s ridleys love crabs, and olive ridleys eat a mix of crabs, shrimp, jellyfish and algae.

Some species, like the green turtle, eat small animals when they are young and switch to plants as they grow up.

Baby Sea Turtles

Every two to three years or so, a female sea turtle crawls up a beach at night, digs a nest with her back flippers and lays around 100 eggs. She covers them with sand and returns to the sea. Many females nest several times in one season.

The eggs incubate in the warm sand for about two months. The temperature of the sand decides whether the babies will be male or female: warmer nests produce more females. When they hatch, the tiny hatchlings dig out together, usually at night, and race toward the brightest horizon, which is normally the moonlit sea.

This is a dangerous time. Crabs, birds, raccoons and fish all eat eggs and hatchlings, and only a small fraction of babies survive to grow up. The young turtles spend their early years drifting in the open ocean, often among floating seaweed, before moving to coastal feeding areas.

Threats to Sea Turtles

Sea turtles have been swimming in Earth’s oceans for more than 100 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. Today, though, they face many dangers caused by people:

• Bycatch – turtles get caught by accident in fishing nets and on long fishing lines, and many drown.
• Habitat loss – buildings on beaches destroy nesting sites, and damage to coral reefs and seagrass beds harms feeding areas.
• Light pollution – bright lights from buildings confuse hatchlings, leading them away from the sea.
• Hunting – in some places turtles are still killed for meat and shells, and eggs are taken from nests.
• Pollution – turtles can mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and get tangled in old nets and fishing line.

You can help by using less plastic, keeping beaches clean, switching off outdoor lights near nesting beaches and never disturbing nesting turtles or hatchlings.

Fun Facts About Sea Turtles

• Leatherbacks are record-breaking divers and have been tracked diving deeper than 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet).
• Sea turtles sometimes look as if they are crying. The “tears” come from special glands that get rid of extra salt from the seawater they swallow.
• A resting or sleeping sea turtle can hold its breath for several hours, though an active turtle needs to breathe much more often.
• Sea turtles do not need to drink fresh water. They get the water they need from their food and from seawater, after getting rid of the salt.
• Leatherbacks are among the fastest reptiles in the water and have been recorded swimming at more than 30 km/h (about 20 mph) in short bursts.

Sea turtle FAQs

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