Incredible Journey: Hawksbill Sea Turtles
Slow and vulnerable on land, hawksbill sea turtles are graceful swimmers capable of long ocean journeys. Their life cycle, like that of almost all sea turtles, involves traveling long distances between their home beaches and their foraging grounds. The turtles' astounding navigational feats were observed by Nature Conservancy scientists in the Solomon Islands.
What Do You Know about the Hawksbill Sea Turtle?
- Physical Characteristics: Hawksbill sea turtles rarely exceed 3 feet in shell length and usually weigh less than 130 pounds. Their sharp, pointed beaks assist them in finding food in the cracks and crevasses of the reefs on which they feed.
- Habitat Range: Hawksbills are found in the eastern Atlantic, from the coast of France to the southern tip of Africa, and have feeding grounds in the Mediterranean. They are also found in the coastal waters of Australia and Indonesia. In the Americas, hawksbills occur in the east Pacific from the U.S. to Peru and in the west Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Brazil.
- Diet: Hawksbills eat sponges and other invertebrates found on coral reefs, which is likely why hawksbills are the most exclusively tropical of all sea turtles.
- Life cycle: Females come ashore on nesting beaches every 2 to 5 years. After digging a nesting pit, they deposit up to 180 eggs. The eggs hatch in about 60 days, then the tiny hatchlings make their way to the beach and swim for up to three days to the relative safety of deep water, where they drift for years. Upon reaching a size of 8 to 12 inches, they return to shallower water, where they spend many years foraging and growing. At sexual maturity, both the male and the female return to the area where they were born to mate and begin the cycle again. Females lay from 2 to 4 clutches of eggs at two-week intervals before returning to their feeding grounds.
- Threats: Hawksbill turtle shells are used for the production of carved tortoiseshell objects, even though there is an international ban on trafficking them. In many countries, turtle meat is considered a delicacy, and both subsistence and commercial harvesting is depleting populations. In low-technology rural communities, sea turtles are prized for their ability to stay alive for long periods after capture. In areas where there is no refrigeration, this characteristic makes turtles a highly sought-after feast food.
What The Nature Conservancy Is Doing
- In 1991, at the invitation of three villages on Choiseul and Santa Isabel islands and in partnership with the Solomon Islands government, The Nature Conservancy began work to establish the Arnavon Islands Marine Conservation Area (AMCA).
- The Conservancy is also working to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable levels of harvest and the damaging effects of destructive methods of extraction. To help residents in the area from Posarae community in Choiseul Province to Kia community in Isabel Province find sustainable livelihoods, the Conservancy is launching a deep-water fisheries project, which incorporates these sound environmental and resource management ideas.
- To share resource-management methods learned in the AMCA to protect marine resources throughout the region.
- To create a conservation trust fund for the Solomon Islands.
How You Can Help Save the Hawksbill Sea Turtle
The Solomon Islands are ranked among the top 10 most biologically diverse and imperiled nations in the world. The hawksbill sea turtle is just one of many species under threat in the Solomons. By supporting the work of The Nature Conservancy, you'll help protect the places these creatures call home.
