21st century skills library 4 A Turtle’s Compass chapter 1 When people take trips by boat or plane they rely on a navigator someone to make sure they are going in the right direction Sea turtles don’t need a navigator From the time they hatch they know just where to go They spend several years in the open water then they move to feeding sites Later they return to the same beach where they hatched to lay eggs of their own Some will travel thousands of miles all the way across the ocean and back Sea turtles are solitary animals They mostly swim alone although they sometimes nest together Their
exploring our oceans 5 Fifth-grade students in South Carolina chose the loggerhead sea turtle as their state’s reptile in 1988 shape and strong front flippers help them go long distances and dive deep into the ocean They come up for air every few minutes though some dives can last 30 minutes or more When they are resting sea turtles can stay underwater for several hours
Flatbacks breed and nest only in Australia 6 21st century skills library
exploring our oceans 7 go deeper What other reptiles live in the ocean Where do you think you would find them There are seven species of sea turtles the leatherback flatback hawksbill olive ridley Kemp’s ridley loggerhead and green sea turtle They can be found all over the world and six of them can be found around the United States The flatback sea turtle however lives only near the continental shelf of northern Australia Sea turtles are marine reptiles so they are cold-blooded They keep their body temperature the same as their surroundings Because of this most sea turtles prefer tropical and temperate waters However leatherbacks and loggerheads have been seen as far north as Canada and northern Europe Green sea turtles are found in warm coastal waters around the world building their nests in more than 80 different countries
