silhouettes were drawn from photos of local honu.
Green sea turtles migrate hundreds to thousands of kilometers to their breeding grounds in spring/summer. Females only breed every 2-5 years and usually return to their natal beach, while males can breed every year. A few weeks after mating, the female comes ashore at night, digs a pit on the beach, lays around 100 eggs, and covers the nest with sand. She will continue to nest every two weeks laying an average of 2-4 clutches before returning to her foraging grounds. The eggs hatch two months later and the hatchlings race across the beach to the water. Only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings is thought to survive to adulthood. Green sea turtles reach sexual maturity in 25-35 years and are thought to live 80-100 years. All green sea turtles populations are are listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Habitat loss, disease, fishery by-catch, illegal fisheries (of both turtles and their eggs), and marine debris entanglement and ingestion continue to threaten their recovery.