Sea Turtle What They Eat

What do sea turtles eat?

*Photo by keemkai villadums from Pexels*

By Aubry Forsyth

People oft remember that all ocean turtles eat merely 1 thing – jellyfish. Nevertheless, their diets are much more diverse and depend on the species of sea turtle. This diversity is one way ocean turtles play an important role in the health of ocean and coastal ecosystems. By consuming unlike species, ocean turtles provide checks and balances in the food web.

As adults, flatback and olive ridley bounding main turtles are both omnivores, eating a variety of animals and plants. Meanwhile, green sea turtles as adults are herbivores, eating vegetation. Loggerhead and Kemp's ridley body of water turtles are carnivores, eating other animals. Leatherbacks are referred to every bit gelatinivores because their diet consists of gelatinous prey similar jellyfish and sea squirts. Hawksbill sea turtles often are referred to as spongivores due to their specialized diet that consists almost entirely of sponges. Listed below are the near commonly consumed prey for each species of bounding main turtle:

Green: algae, seagrasses, and seaweed
Leatherback: jellies and other soft-bodied invertebrates like tunicates and sea squirts
Loggerhead: venereal, conchs, whelks, and horseshoe crabs
Hawksbill: almost exclusively sponges
Olive ridley: crabs, shrimp, lobster, sea urchins, jellies, algae, and fish
Kemp's ridley: crabs, fish, jellies, shrimp, and mollusks
Flatback: sea cucumbers, jellies, corals, shrimp, crabs, mollusks, fish, and seaweed

Ocean turtles do not take teeth to help them eat; instead, they take keratinous beaks with varying structures to accommodate their diets. Light-green sea turtles accept finely serrated beaks that enable them to scrape algae off rocks and tear grasses and seaweeds. Loggerhead sea turtles have large heads and incredibly strong jaws that permit them to beat out hard-shelled casualty. Hawksbill sea turtles have sharp, narrow beaks that enable them to reach inside crevices on a reef. Kemp's ridley and olive ridley ocean turtles both have well-adapted jaws for crushing and grinding, assuasive them to eat hard-shelled organisms. Flatback body of water turtles have slightly serrated jaws that allow them to eat a broad variety of marine organisms. Leatherbacks take delicate, scissor-like jaws, with two sharp cusps on both parts of their jaw that permit them to pierce soft-bodied organisms, like jellyfish. Leatherbacks, along with a few other species, have an interesting — and slightly terrifying — accommodation called papillae that line the within of the esophagus. These astern-pointing spines brand it certain that one time a jellyfish is defenseless in the turtle'south jaws, it will non be able to escape.

Unfortunately, sea turtles don't always swallow what they should. For leatherback bounding main turtles in detail, plastic waste is incredibly dangerous. When floating in the water, plastic debris looks extremely similar to jellyfish, and leatherbacks ofttimes eat plastic past mistake. Luckily, you tin help finish the plastic problem by making choices such as using reusable products as often as you can, ownership in majority, and recycling what you are able.

For more data regarding sea turtles' diets, visit: https://www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-nutrition/