What Sea Turtles Eat

The diet of a sea turtle depends upon the species. Some are omnivores, eating a variety of plants and animals, while others like the hawksbill and the leatherback are specialists, subsisting on a diet of primarily sponges (hawksbills) and jellyfish (leatherbacks).  What they eat determines the type of habitat where they are found.  Hawksbills for example, are mainly found on and around coral reefs where their main prey sponges are found.  Greens forage among seagrass beds and nearshore habitats, and leatherbacks, which are deep divers, are found in pelagic (open ocean) environments where they feed exclusively on jellyfish and other soft-bodied invertebrates that float in the water column.

Sea turtle mouths and jaws are also shaped differently depending on their particular diet.  Greens sea turtles have a beak with finely serrated edges, like the teeth of a saw, which enable them to tear seagrasses and scrape algae off of hard surfaces.  Loggerheads have strong, massive jaws which enable them to crush hard-shelled prey like conchs and whelks.  And leatherbacks have sharp, pointed cusps on their upper and lower jaw which enable them to pierce and hold onto jellyfish.  They also have sharp, downward curving spines called papillae in their mouth and throat which help move prey to their stomach.

The diet of hatchlings varies from that of adults.  Hatchlings eat a variety of prey items including things like pelagic molluscs & crustaceans (like larval crabs), hydrozoans (related to jellies and corals such as Portuguese Man-O-War), fish eggs, seaweed, and jellies.  Green hatchlings, unlike the herbivore adult, also eat a variety of prey as young turtles.  Later in life they transition to a diet composed almost entirely of plant material.  Leatherback hatchlings, like adults, are pelagic (open ocean) and are believed to also specialize on a diet of jellyfish and other soft-bodied animals.

ADULT SEA TURTLE DIET

• Green:  Adults are usually referred to as herbivores although as hatchlings they are omnivores.  Their diet consists primarily of algae, seagrasses, and seaweed.  Greens have a finely serrated (sawlike) beak that allows them to scrape algae off rocks and tear grasses and seaweeds.
• Leatherback:  They are sometimes referred to as gelatinivores (eating gelatinous prey) because their diet consists exclusively of jellies and other soft-bodied invertebrates like tunicates and sea squirts.  They have 2 sharply pointed cusps, one on the upper and one on the lower jaw that allows them to pierce jellies and other soft-bodied organisms. 
• Loggerhead:  Adults are carnivores, eating only animals including crabs, conchs, whelks, and horseshoe crabs.  Hatchlings are omnivores, eating both plant and animal material.  Loggerheads have a massive head and strong jaws which enable them to crush hard-shelled prey.
• Hawksbill:  They are often referred to as spongivores because of their specialized diet which consists almost exclusively of sponges.  The hawksbill has a sharp, narrow "bird-like" beak that allows them to reach prey within crevices on the reef.
• Olive ridley:  The olive ridley is an omnivore, eating a variety of animals and plants including crabs, shrimp, lobster, urchins, jellies, algae, and fish.
• Kemp's ridley:  The Kemp's ridley is a carnivore eating crabs, fish, jellies, shrimp, and a variety of molluscs.  It's preferred prey though is crab.
• Flatback:  The flatback is an omnivore that consumes sea cucumbers, jellies, soft corals, shrimp, crab, molluscs, fish, and seaweed.

Did You Know?

• Herbivores like the green sea turtle are important for maintaining the health of coral reefs.  Without them eating algae, corals can be overgrown and die from the algae which out-competes them.
• Because leatherbacks primarily eat jellyfish, they are attracted to plastic bags which resemble jellies when floating in the water.  Eating them often leads to death.  For more information about this problem, see our page about ocean plastic.  To learn more about jellyfish click here.
• The seagrass Thalassia testudinum is commonly known as "turtle grass" because in some areas like the Caribbean, green sea turtles eat it almost exclusively.  Thalassia testudinum is common in Florida, the Caribbean, Bermuda and from the Gulf of Mexico south to Venezuela.
• Sponges contain spicules (glass-like spines) and toxins which the hawksbill is immune to, making less competition for this food source.  They are also particular about the types of sponges they eat which gives rare sponges an opportunity to grow creating greater diversity on the reef.
• Some sea turtles undertake impressive migrations to forage (find food).  The leatherback has been tracked crossing the entire Pacific Ocean from Asia to the West coast of the US to forage on swarms of jellyfish off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California.  For more about this incredible migration click here.

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