Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Photo: dod_od · CC BY-NC

Hawksbill turtles are frequent visitors to Caban Island's sponge-rich reef sections, using their narrow beaked jaws to extract sponges from crevices in a feeding strategy that no other large animal replicates. The critically endangered status of this species makes encounters here all the more significant, with several individuals that have been photo-identified as regular residents of the island. Their sponge-feeding behavior plays an important ecological role in maintaining reef structure diversity.