Living in Hawai‘i, we get to see a lot of green sea turtles and occasionally a hawksbill turtle feeding on limu close to shore while we are out surfing, diving or swimming.
Some of our common sea turtles live most of their lives around one island, but some travel all across the Hawaiian Island chain traveling up to 1,000 miles per year.
I always thought that it was amazing that a green sea turtle could live in Kaua‘i, but travel all the way to the northwest Hawaiian Islands to lay their eggs, then come all the way back to Kaua‘i. But there is a sea turtle that travels over 9,000 miles a year and their territory is the entire planet.
When diving in Mexico, I saw my first loggerhead sea turtle. There it is called tortuga amarillo, which means yellow turtle. The loggerhead looks similar to our green sea turtle, but it can grow twice as big, up to 1,000 pounds.
It is the largest hard shell turtle in the world, even larger than the giant Galapagos tortoise. Its shell and head are quite smooth and a yellowish brown color with very little pattern to the scales.
While in Mexico I asked the local divers, where does the loggerhead turtle lay its eggs? All sea turtles lay their eggs up on the beach, but in Mexico the divers told me they have never seen a loggerhead lay eggs.
I thought that was very strange and a year later I was diving in Palau on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and I saw another loggerhead turtle. I asked the divers there where do these giant turtles lay their eggs and they said they have never seen them lay eggs.
The mystery around where loggerhead turtles lay their eggs started to bug me as a marine biologist, as I need to know the answers to these questions, so I went diving in South Florida recently and guess what?
The loggerheads were laying eggs right on the beach in front of the condo I was staying in. How can a turtle living in Mexico be laying eggs in Florida? My curiosity got the better of me and now I have become a loggerhead turtle fan because these mysterious creatures that have been on earth for over 40 million years just blow my mind!
A loggerhead turtle tagged in Mexico went all the way to Japan to lay her eggs. That is a one way trip of 9,000 miles. Another loggerhead tagged in Japan went to the Arabian peninsula to lay her eggs and a young loggerhead off Africa took a long distance trip to Miami to lay her eggs.
It turns out now that there are a lot of tracking programs taking place with sea turtles that the loggerheads can travel the entire planet, may feed in one ocean but travel to lay eggs in a whole different ocean. This is just truly amazing but presents a major problem when trying to protect this rare and endangered species because it is a world traveler and does not recognize which country it goes in and out of.
Loggerhead turtles live for up to 70 years and they eat about anything in the sea they can catch from squid, starfish, jellyfish to crabs. In order to track these amazing creatures a new project raised 100 baby loggerhead turtles and released them in the open ocean north or Hawai‘i.
Loggerheads occasionally visit Hawai‘i so they know that it is part of their natural habitat. Out of the 100 young turtles released some went to Mexico, some to Japan and a few came down to visit us in Hawai‘i.
This project is part of a major study to find out where these turtles travel to and if they have established travel routes, so we can put a protection plan in place between several countries in order to protect this amazing worldwide traveler.
Here in Hawai‘i, we protect all sea turtle species under the Endangered Species Act, but in parts of Micronesia they still eat the sea turtles so the loggerhead which calls all of the planet’s oceans home has an unusual problem.
It just goes to show that all life on earth is connected and our blue green planet is one living system that we need to take care of and create a sustainable planet for all living creatures. What happens in the environment in one part of the world affects us all because we are all connected through the air and sea.
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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist living in Hanalei Kaua‘i and co-founder of Reef Guardians Hawai‘i, a nonprofit on a mission to provide education and resources to protect the coral reef. To donate to Reef Guardians Hawai‘i go to www.reefguardianshawaii.org.
