Because of their economic uses, green turtles are rarely found in 
the large sizes or numbers that once were common. Formerly, six-foot 
turtles weighing five hundred pounds were usual, while today specimens 
sent to American markets from South Atlantic and Caribbean waters range 
from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty pounds. The species is also found 
in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 
Green turtles are caught by means of nets, harpoons and poles. They 
frequently sleep on the surface of the ocean and sometimes on desolate 
beaches and in this condition are easily taken. When sleeping at sea their 
dormant backs, floating just out of water, provide resting places for small 
gulls and terns. When ambushed on the beach they are turned on their backs 
by a deft stroke of a long pole. They are shipped to market either lying 
on their backs or in great water tanks placed on the vessel’s deck. Some 
are so heavy that they must be loaded and unloaded with the help of 
derricks. 
The famous soup, cherished by gourmets, is made from the shell with 
the dense green fat clinging to it. Turtle soup is about one-third flesh, fresh 
vegetables, sherry wine, a number of spices and water. Aside from being 
a great delicacy, the soup is said to derive medicinal value from the iodine 
and phosphate contained in the seaweed eaten by the turtle. 
Related marine turtles, the loggerhead and Kemp’s bastard, have simi¬ 
lar habits, but are not valued for their flesh. 
HAWKSBILL TURTLE 
One of the smallest sea turtles, the hawksbill is also the most valuable to 
man because of the fine texture and strength of its beautiful shell. Like 
other sea turtles, this two-and-a-half-foot species grazes along the bottom 
of ocean shallows for seaweed and crustaceans. It, too, lays its eggs on a 
sandy beach just above the tide line and then promptly forgets about them. 
In Cuba this turtle is sometimes caught in an unusual fashion. A 
remora, or sucking fish, is thrown into the sea with a line attached to its 
tail. When the adhesive disk on the fish’s head clings to the turtle, the 
fisherman pulls in the line. 
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