Green sea turtle

Photo: Jean-Paul Cassez · CC BY-NC

The green turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle and one of the most wide-ranging marine reptiles. In Mauritius it has made a strong recovery on the west coast following protection measures, and individuals regularly return to the same resting ledges on the Flic en Flac Wall year after year. Green turtles are named for the greenish colour of their fat, not their shell, and feed almost entirely on seagrass and algae as adults.