Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Eretmochelys imbricata
A reef-tending, sponge-eating sea turtle that glows — and was hunted nearly to extinction for its shell.
Sea turtles are reptiles: they breathe air, lay their eggs on beaches, and warm up and cool down with the water around them. The hawksbill is the one with the narrow, hooked, hawk-like beak and the beautiful amber-and-brown shell. It eats sponges that would poison almost anything else, and in 2015 it became the first reptile ever seen to glow.
On the conservation status
Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996. People killed an estimated nine million hawksbills between 1844 and 1992 for their shells. International trade in them is now banned, but illegal trade and lost nesting beaches still hold them back.
- Length
- About 60–110 cm (2–3.5 ft)
- Weight
- 45–70 kg (100–150 lb)
- Lifespan
- Probably 50–60 years
- Diet
- Mostly sea sponges
- Grown up at
- 20–35 years old
- Class
- Reptile — not a mammal
The good stuff.
It eats poison
Sponges make up most of a hawksbill's diet, including kinds so toxic, or so full of tiny glass needles, that almost nothing else will touch them.
A reef gardener
Sponges compete with corals for space on the reef. By eating them, hawksbills help give corals room to grow.
The first glowing reptile
In 2015, a scientist filming at night near the Solomon Islands saw a hawksbill glowing red and green under blue light. It was the first time a reptile had ever been seen to biofluoresce.
A saw-edged shell
The plates on its shell overlap like roof tiles, which gives the back edge a jagged, saw-like look. Its scientific name, imbricata, means overlapping.
Tortoiseshell was turtle shell
Before plastic, combs, glasses frames and jewellery made of tortoiseshell came from hawksbills. Around nine million were killed for it. International trade has been banned since the 1970s.
Beach babies
At night, females crawl up tropical beaches, dig a nest and lay around 140 eggs, which hatch about two months later. The hatchlings dig their way out and race to the sea on their own.
Wait, really?
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Whether a hatchling turns out male or female depends on how warm the sand is — warmer nests make more females.
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Hawksbill embryos and hatchlings have been recorded making faint sounds in and around the nest.
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Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula has some of the most important hawksbill nesting beaches in the Atlantic.
What it sounds like
Mostly quiet, but not silent. Scientists have recorded hawksbill embryos and hatchlings making faint sounds, which may help them hatch together.
We haven't found a recording we're allowed to share yet, so for now this one is a description.
Where you might see one
Coral reefs across the tropics. In Mexico, the beaches of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo are some of the Atlantic's most important nesting sites.
The trouble
- Illegal trade in tortoiseshell
- Egg collecting and hunting
- Nesting beaches lost to building and bright lights
- Damaged coral reefs, and getting caught in fishing gear
One real thing
Never buy anything made of tortoiseshell, even as a souvenir. And on a nesting beach at night, keep lights off: hatchlings head for the brightest horizon, and a hotel's lights can lead them away from the sea.
More ways to help