Hawksbill Sea Turtle

1 Overview

The hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a beautiful but actually fierce sea turtle, hunted for centuries because its shell makes luxurious ‘tortoiseshell’ and traditional medicine. Decades of over-harvesting have driven it to the brink; it is now rarely seen in Chinese waters.

CONSERVATION / SAFETY NOTE: critically endangered (IUCN) and CITES Appendix I; international trade is banned. This is an education-only profile – sea turtles are not pets. The shell’s amber clouds with radiating dark streaks gave the names ‘thirteen-plate turtle’ (13 dorsal scutes) and ‘ocean gold’.

2 Appearance

Like other sea turtles: flattened body, protective shell, paddle flippers. Adults 0.6-0.8 m (largest about 1.7 m, historically up to 210 kg). The hooked, hawk-like upper jaw is the namesake ‘hawksbill’. The overlapping, shingled scutes (5 vertebrals plus 4 pairs of costals = 13) give the ‘thirteen-plate’ name; rear marginals serrated. Plastron white or yellow; head, tail and flippers retractable. Males brighter, with concave plastron and long claws.

Pacific hawksbills have a more heart-shaped shell and solid-black facial patterning; Atlantic ones have near-straight marginals. Their land tracks are asymmetrical (diagonal limb pairs) unlike green or leatherback turtles.

3 Habitat (Wild)

Adults live mainly in tropical coral reefs, weaving through caves and gullies by day for rest. As a migratory turtle its habitat spans open ocean, lagoons and even mangrove swamps at river mouths. Activity is mostly in waters deeper than about 18 m, shifting among very different habitats through life.

4 Habitat & Environment

Found in tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific and Atlantic: coastal coral reefs, bays, estuaries and clear lagoons, usually shallow; nesting on remote isolated beaches. Little is known of juvenile habitat – they are thought to live a plankton-like pelagic life until maturity.

5 Diet & Feeding

Despite being omnivorous, its main food is sponges – 70-95% of the Caribbean diet (an adult eats about 544 kg per year). It selectively takes only certain sponge species and also eats algae, jellyfish, anemones (closing its eyes against stinging cells), and crabs or clams (powerful jaws crush shells). It tolerates sponges toxic to other animals, including those with siliceous spicules.