What is Sea Turtle?

The turtle living in the ocean.

There are 7 kinds of turtles, Loggerhead turtle, Green turtle, Hawksbill turtle, Olive Ridley, Kemp’s Ridley turtle, Flatback turtle, and Leatherback turtle. All of them are critically endangered.

In the north pacific, the Loggerhead turtles come to the beach in Okinawa, Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island, and Honshu Island up north to Fukushima prefecture to lay eggs. The Green turtles come to Bonin Islands, Yakushima, and Ryukyu Islands. The Hawksbill turtles come to Okinawa and southern islands. The Olive Ridley and the Leatherback turtle migrate to Japanese offshore. The biggest turtle among the seven is the Leatherback turtle up to 2 meters and 700 kg. The smallest is Kemp’s Ridley of 75cm and 45 kg.

Most of sea turtle is omnivorous, feeds on jelly fish, shellfish, crustaceans such as crabs and shrimps, fish and so on. Green turtle feeds on sea vegetable.

The turtles are now monitored by 2 cameras in water and 3 cameras on the beach. Their mating season is February, then the female turtles come up to beach from late April to June during night for nesting and lay eggs 4 or 5 times in one season. About 100 eggs are laid each time. The eggs are collected for artificial incubation in the Turtle Breeding Research Centre. The baby turtles are taken care after hatching, and the half of them are released to the open sea from off coast of Boso Peninsula.

1. Penis is hidden in tail.

2. The nails help the male to stay on the female. The arched plastron of male let him stay on female stably.

Mating is successful when the turtles stay in this position for about 2 hours.

Port of Nagoya Aquarium released 40 turtles in 2005 and 35 turtles in 2006 from the centre of Pacific Ocean around the International Date Line to study their migration east of Hawaii. The turtles were carried to this point by Aichi Maru, which is the training ship of Miya Fisheries High School.

Dr. George Balazs from NOAA, Mr. Marc Rice and his students from HPA, the students from Miya Fisheries High School and the Stuffs from Port of Nagoya Aquarium boarded. Chief officer of the turtle breeding and research Tomomi Saito said "it was very important that the turtles born in Nagoya Aquarium helped Japan and the USA to corporate to research the oceanic ecology for natural environment protection and also cultural exchange between the two countries."

Loggerhead turtle and other turtles eat shrimps, squids, fish (Japanese sand lance) at Port of Nagoya Aquarium. For green turtle, lettuce and cabbage are prepared.

Protection of Loggerhead turtle

The population of the loggerhead turtle has been declining. Beach for nesting is disappearing due to bank protection works or development. Ocean water is contaminated by chemical material which may physiologically affect turtles. Many turtles get stuck in the fishing net or fishhook.

In Japan, the number of nests and eggs and the beach biology are monitored at 40 seashores by Biodiversity Center of Japan, a project center of Ministry of the Environment. The turtle monitoring is a part of "Monitoring Site 1000", which researches forests, rivers, lakes, wetlands, or seashores and establish data to help the future conservation projects.

Many of the monitoring are helped by local universities, study institutions, NPOs and volunteers.

" 'Monitoring Site 1000' started in 2003. This project will be carried on at least for 100 years. The research on sea turtle's nesting has just started as a part of 'Monitoring Site 1000'. It takes more years to find the trend of the environmental change. Just to say about this year, the number of nesting turtles is increased to 3 times from last year. It is too early to say that the environment around turtles becomes better", said Shoko Yoshida at Biodiversity Center of Japan. She thinks that the cooperation of many people in different organizations, institutions and groups is essential to protect natural environment for turtles.

Her name is Pig-nosed Turtle. Though her swimming is slow, she can move through the water with grace. Other fish often reach food before she does, but don't worry. Her zookeeper keeps some especially for her. This turtle has a nose like a pig. Pig-nosed turtle, isn't that a good name?

He looks like Disney's famous "Nemo", but the Anemone Fish is not a Clownfish. Gazing into the tank, you feel as if you are living in a galaxy.

Their swimming is so fast. Now they are right in front of you, and then, they are gone in a second. Their bodies are beautifully streamlined. If you are able to take a succesful picture, take a real close look at it. Just before they leave, they take a look at you. They are communicating with you.

Am I only one in the aquarium who feels like saying "...looks yummy!"? The delicate movements of his fins are mesmerizing.

The huge tank and the quiet beach are equipped for the Sea Turtles as if they are living in the great outdoors. If you are lucky, you may see them laying their eggs. There are so many predators in the real world that it is not easy to grow as big as they have grown.