Kemp's ridley is disappearing as a result of uncontrolled 

 mortality in shrimp trawls, in both Mexico and the United States. 



The Green Turtle (Chelonia my das ) 



Morphology ; The green turtle is the largest of the hard- 

 shelled sea turtle species, although the adult size varies 

 considerably from one colony to another. At Tortuguero, Costa 

 Rica, for example, an unusually large female may measure 105 cm 

 and weigh about 160 kg. In the Guianas or in Surinam, on the 

 other hand, a female may be as much as 125 cm in carapace length, 

 and weigh 250 kg. 



The green turtle has a relatively small head, with a short, 

 rounded snout and a single pair of rather elongate prefrontal 

 scales. The shell is broad and smooth, with four pairs of costal 

 scutes; in shape it is nearly oval, but somewhat broader 

 anteriorly than posteriorly. The forelimbs are long and 

 powerful. The green turtle varies greatly in color and markings. 

 Hatchlings are dorsally almost black and ventrally white (the 

 only sea turtle species, apart from Chelonia agassizi, to have a 

 white plastron on hatching) . With growth, the carapace becomes 

 brown and usually develops radiating markings on each scute. In 

 mature animals the overall coloration may be brownish or olive, 

 and in some (especially adult males) the radiating markings 

 evolve into spots and blotches. However, the name "green turtle" 

 refers to the color of the fat, not to the external coloration. 



Distribution ; (1) Foraging areas. The green turtle is 

 primarily a tropical species, and its foraging grounds largely 

 coincide with the huge beds of marine grasses or macroalgae that 

 occur in shallow coastal waters in the tropics. Thus, immature 

 or foraging adult green turtles may occur in shallow waters 

 through the Caribbean, although with conspicuous concentrations 

 in certain areas — for example, off the Caribbean coast of 

 Nicaragua; in Panama and Colombia east to the Gulf of Venezuela; 

 and on the coast of Brazil from Ceara eastward and southward 

 around the "bulge." Outside the tropics, immatures are found in 

 relatively large numbers in some of the protected lagoon systems 

 near Cape Canaveral (Mosquito Lagoon; Indian River) , but they are 

 rather scarce north of Florida. 



The green turtle also has a wide distribution in the 

 tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans; this species and 

 the hawksbill are the only two species that are habitually found 

 around remote oceanic islands. Feeding and nesting grounds are 

 often considerably separated, and the migratory habits of the 

 green turtle appear to be more developed, both in terms of 

 distance and of accuracy of making landfalls, than those of any 

 other marine turtle. In some cases these migratory journeys 

 involve the crossing of over 1,000 km of open ocean, as in the 



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