THE GREEN TURTLE, AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF ITS PROTECTION AND 

 CONSEQUENT INCREASE ON THE FLORIDA COAST. 



BY RALPH M. MUNROE. 



Early travelers on the tropical coasts of America made much mention of the abun- 

 dance of turtles which were to be seen in the waters at all times and on the beaches 

 in the spring season engaged in laying their eggs. How many of these belonged to the 

 species Chelonia mydas is mere conjecture, for, aside from the tables of the rich and 

 the cabins of the mariner, to the latter of which it often came as a Godsend in times 

 of hunger and scurvy, it was comparatively unknown, and as other species were edible 

 and somewhat similar in appearance, the old chroniclers put them all under the one 

 head of turtle. As a matter of fact, the loggerhead (Thalassochelys caretta], common 

 now on our coast, when not oversized and when properly butchered and cooked, is not 

 to be despised by a man even not hungry, and so also the hawksbill (Eretmochelys 

 imbricata), from which comes the tortoise shell of commerce. 



With the advent of steam vessels, penetrating as they do the labyrinths of the 

 West Indian islands and adjacent coasts, enabling the perishable tropical products to 

 be transported in safety, the green turtle has become a more common food and less of 

 a luxury in our seaboard cities, and, as most people take kindly to it, the demand has 

 increased with the usual result in connection with natural products, a growing scarcity 

 and higher prices. Being, as it is, a nutritious delicacy, it is quite time that its habits, 

 reproduction, and methods of capture should be looked into before its enforced classi- 

 fication with the extinct reptiles, even if this should be an event far distant ; and it 

 might be well worth our time and attention to reduce, by cultivation and protection, 

 the present rather prohibitive price of a valuable food. 



As is the case with very much of marine life, but little is known as to the habits 

 of the green turtle. Its food is a marine grass growing on the bottoms of lagoons and 

 bays more or less shallow. It mates on the Florida coast in the month of May, or 

 thereabouts, the females with eggs, except in rare cases, at once disappearing from 

 these waters, and, until recently, going no one knew where, but it may now be asserted 

 that their hatching-grounds are the beaches of various isolated islands off Central 

 America or the Bahama banks. How this migration is accomplished across the Gulf 

 Stream for hundreds of miles is past comprehension. As high as four hatches of eggs, 

 containing from 130 to 180 each, are believed to be laid by one female during the 

 months of June, July, and August, and the process is not repeated until an interval 

 of one or two years has elapsed. Incubation takes from ten to twelve weeks. We 

 have little information as to where the young that escape the gulls and other birds on 

 the beach, the fish and sharks, pass their time on entering the water again like their 



F. C. B. 189718 273 



