World Sea Turtle Day is here at last. Celebrated on June 16th, this special day is dedicated to one of the world’s oldest and most fascinating creatures. Unfortunately, this is also a day to remind everyone of the sea turtle’s endangered status.
Sea turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. They typically live to between 30 and 50 years of age, spending most of their lives at sea. Part of the reptile family, sea turtles can hold their breath for up to five hours. This comes in handy since some species can dive as deep as 1,000 meters below the water’s surface before needing to come up for air. Sea turtles also like to get around, often migrating very long distances. One species migrates over 12,000 km from nesting beaches in Japan all the way to feeding grounds near Mexico. Their amazing sense of direction is due to their ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field.
Female sea turtles return to the beach they hatched on to nest. Some species lay up to 250 eggs in a single nest, and each egg takes around 60 days to incubate. However, it’s estimated that only one in a thousand baby turtles survives to adulthood.