Green Sea Turtles

It takes a lot of good fortune for a turtle to live long enough to attain this size. It takes females 20-30 years to reach sexual maturity and begin nesting. Reproductively active females visit breeding beaches - usually the one where it was born, or one nearby - and crawl out at night. She digs a hole in the sand and dumps up to 100 or more eggs in it. They'll create a few nests over a few weeks period and can dump nearly 200 eggs in total. This is reptilian carpet-bombing reproduction. Predation of newly emerged turtlelets is quite high, and most will not make it.Here's a closer view of the turtle above. Green Sea Turtles are the largest of the sea turtles. Mature specimens can be up to four feet in length and weigh 350 pounds. They are also the most successful species, occurring in warm seas worldwide, and boasting a population estimated at 90,000 breeding females, and presumably a similar number of males.This was a particularly turtleiferous beach. About 25 turtles or parts thereof are visible in this shot, and there were others off camera. Even though this particular spot was one of the most popular surfing beaches on Maui, people are generally quite respectful of the big reptiles and give them their space.An adult sea turtle pops its head up for a quick breath. It was surprisingly hard to get this shot, as you never know when they'll surface, and when they do, it's usually only for a few seconds. Whan at rest, a turtle can remain underwater for up to seven hours. When actively feeding, as this one was, surface visits for air are much more frequent but still not that frequent.