Hawksbill sea turtle

Photo: MDC SeaMarc Maldives · CC BY-SA

Hawksbill turtles are the specialist sponge feeders of the sea turtle world, with a narrow pointed beak evolved to extract sponges from reef crevices. They are Critically Endangered globally but resident on the intact reef sections around Sainte-Marie where sponge biomass is high. Their foraging behaviour is one of the key mechanisms that prevents sponges from outcompeting corals on healthy Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reefs.