In honour of World Turtle Day – May 23rd – I am featuring turtle(s) for Pic of the Day.
Hawksbill turtle – Eretmochelys imbricata
Turtles are very cool creatures – air breathers, and egg layers (on land – much to the peril of the turtles, their eggs, and the hatchlings). They appear to be sometimes curious, and will often let divers approach quite closely, especially when they are feeding.
Turtles like to eat sponges and jellyfish, and I’ve seen them drifting in the blue as they munch a big jelly (they seem unconcerned with the stinging tendrils), and I’ve also seen them hunkered down on the reef, chowing on a tasty sponge.
This Cozumel turtle was in eating mode. Despite the hefty current on this dive, he just stuck his fins into the reef and poised himself over a sponge. I had to swim hard, up current, to get this portrait.
Unfortunately for turtles, they are apparently good eating themselves, and in many locations I’ve been diving, they are worryingly scarce. Add to that the massive amount of shoreline development that has disturbed their nesting grounds, and you get yet another animal that is threatened with extinction.
A couple more turtles, from various locations:
Galapagos Turtle
Turtle from Banda Sea, Indonesia
Komodo, Indonesia Turtle – in its garden
One more from Cozumel, where turtles are quite plentiful, thanks to the Marine Sanctuary.
