several clutches (sometimes as many as eight or nine) at 

 intervals averaging about 14 days, the turtles may migrate to 

 feeding grounds to the north (in Nicaraguan waters) or to the 

 south (Panama to the Gulf of Venezuela) , with small numbers of 

 post-nesting females showing up almost anywhere in the Caribbean. 

 Philopatry in the green turtle is good — that is, females usually 

 renest very close to the site of previous nestings. Nesting is 

 almost invariably nocturnal, and the emerging females are very 

 easily disturbed by lights or other unnatural disturbances. The 

 terrestrial gait is slow and ponderous, and involves simultaneous 

 heavings-forward using all four limbs. Having selected a nest 

 site, the turtle excavates a body pit, mainly using the 

 foreflippers, then excavates the egg cavity using only the hind 

 limbs. The eggs usually number over 100, and sometimes as many 

 as 150. They are somewhat larger than the eggs of the hawksbill, 

 loggerhead, and ridleys, about 5.5 cm in diameter, and they hatch 

 after approximately 60 days. 



Major threats to survival ; Green turtles are still abundant 

 in some parts of the world, notably on the major Atlantic nesting 

 grounds of Costa Rica, Surinam, and Ascension Island, and, in the 

 other oceans, in Australia, New Caledonia, Europa Island. 

 However, they have been severely depleted in most other areas, 

 almost entirely as a result of capture of the turtles as food for 

 man. The green turtle plays a somewhat bimodal role in human 

 nutrition, rarely featuring in the diet of the middle class, but 

 being of importance in a number of subsistence-level coastal 

 communities as well as providing a luxury food for wealthy 

 Europeans and Americans (at least until the provisions of CITES 

 limited international trade) . 



In addition to demand for the meat of the green turtle, the 

 eggs are highly appreciated by many coastal communities. Where 

 nesting density is low, nearly every nest may be raided, and thus 

 incipient major colonies may be prevented from forming. In 

 Surinam, where large numbers of green turtles nest, the take of 

 eggs for human consumption is controlled, and attempts are made 

 just to harvest those eggs that are judged to correspond to 

 natural wastage — "doomed eggs," laid too near the sea and subject 

 to erosion. On the other hand, in countries such as Malaysia 

 (the Sarawak Turtle Islands in particular) , although egg- 

 collection is controlled, the numbers kept back for hatching are 

 so small that the population is already showing evidence of 

 collapse and imminent extinction. Such trends cannot be reversed 

 quickly, since the green turtle takes several decades to reach 

 maturity, and thus, even if total egg protection were to be 

 instigated immediately, such recruitment would not be manifested 

 in the breeding population before the year 2020 or beyond. 



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