What Do Sea Turtles Eat? It's Not What You Think

Scientific Name: Dermochelys coriacea

Geographical Range: The population of this species is widely distributed across the waters of Africa, Norway, New Zealand, the Atlantic and the Cape of Good Hope. However, they are most abundant at Rantau Abang beach, Malaysia.

Eating Habits: Leatherback turtles eat jellyfish, tunicates, and other soft-bodied animals. Hard substances can damage their jaws. Leatherback sea turtles have fragile, scissor-shaped jaws. Their mouth cavity and throat have backward-pointing, spoke-like projections that help them swallow slippery prey.

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Scientific Name: Lepidochelys kempii

Geographical Range: While prominent residents of the Gulf of Mexico, they are also found in Nova Scotia.

Eating Habits: The jaws of this species, similar to those of loggerheads, are built for grinding and crushing. They feed on crabs, shrimp, mollusks, jellyfish and vegetation. Crabs are their favorite food, these turtles spend much of their time foraging at the muddy bottoms of oceans in search of crabs. When crabs are scarce, they adapt to other food sources like seaweed and sargassum.

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Scientific Name: Lepidochelys olivacea

Geographical Range: Prefers the warmer waters of the southern Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Eating Habits: They feed on crabs, shrimp, rock lobsters, tunicates and jellyfish. When these foods are scarce or unavailable they feed on thin, thread-like algae. They have very powerful jaws, which makes them an omnivorous species capable of handling a wide variety of prey.

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered in western Atlantic oceans and threatened in other parts of the world.

Scientific Name: Chelonia mydas

Geographical Range: Distributed across tropical and temperate waters around the world.

Eating Habits: Green turtles have finely serrated jaws well suited to a vegetarian diet of sea grasses and algae. Since neither food source is enough on its own, a green sea turtle needs to feed on both in large amounts every day. Its head is smaller than those of other species because it does not need to expand its jaws while eating.

Conservation Status: Listed as Endangered in Mexico and along Florida's Pacific ocean beaches.

Scientific Name: Caretta caretta

Geographical Range: It dwells in tropical and subtropical ocean waters around the world and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Eating Habits: Loggerhead turtles can comfortably feed on prey animals with hard shell coverings, common examples being crabs, shrimp, mollusks, jellyfish and vegetation. While loggerhead turtles are known for diving deep to the sea floor to find food, they can also feed in shallow coastal waters. The jaws of loggerhead turtles are built for grinding and crushing.

Conservation Status: Listed as Endangered in the U.S.

Scientific Name: Eretmochelys imbricata

Geographical Range: Found throughout the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.

Eating Habits: Its diet includes sponges, shrimp, tunicates and squids. A hawksbill is very selective about its food, unless preferred food is unavailable. Its mouth is designed to grab food from crevices in coral reefs. It has an exceptionally narrow head that lets it reach food from these tight spaces. It spends 95% of a day eating.

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Scientific Name: Natator depressus

Geographical Range: It inhabits the waters of the northern, northwestern and northeastern coast of Australia, and the Gulf of Papua, New Guinea.

Eating Habits: The feeding habits of flatbacks are yet to be fully determined by the scientific community. So far they have been observed as opportunistic feeders. They eat sea cucumbers, seaweed, cuttlefish, squid, mollusks and soft corals. Their habit of ingesting large amounts of sea grass proves beneficial for creating a healthier ecosystem for other living organisms under water.

Conservation Status: Data Deficient, there is a lack of adequate information about its risk of extinction.