Green sea turtle Facts for Kids

The green sea turtle swims in warm seas with its flippers. It eats seagrass and seaweed. Mother turtles go to a sandy beach to lay their eggs.

Green sea turtles are named for the green color of their fat, not their shell. Young turtles eat small sea animals, but grown turtles eat mostly seagrass and algae, and their grazing helps keep seagrass beds healthy. They breathe air, so they must come up to the surface, but they can rest underwater for a long time.

Green sea turtles travel long distances between the places where they feed and the beaches where they hatched. At night, a mother crawls up the beach, digs a nest with her back flippers and covers her eggs with sand. When the hatchlings come out, they head for the brightest horizon, which is usually the sea. People protect nesting beaches, turn off bright lights near them and use fishing gear that lets turtles escape, and these efforts have helped many groups of green turtles recover.