Sea Coral Turtle and Sea Grass Turtle (06/2015)

I follow a Hawksbill Turtle (weight 40 kg – long 50 cm) in the coral reef of Kilo Ashra (Serib Soraya Bay) in El Quseir. She, Smartie, feed mainly on sponges by using her narrow pointed beak to extract them from crevices on the reef, but also eat sea anemones and jellyfish. Sea turtles are the living representatives of a group of reptiles that has existed on Earth and travelled our seas for the last 100 million years. They are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems and help maintain the health of coral reefs and sea grass beds. As they remove prey such as sponges from the reef’s surface, they provide better access for reef fish to feed. They also have cultural significance and tourism value… and that make my little turtle disturbed so many time during my time with her…. it is important to move slowly when you want to observe her….and even sometime hide yourself not to stress her too much.
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Another famous Sea Turtles are the Green Giant Turtles of Abou Dabab Bay. It is a very famous bay with so many snorkelers and divers…but the Turtles get used of them…and look not so shy! In the bay The Dugong is back! There was a couple of Dugongs time ago but they were fade up of touristic invasion and they left…in June there was one back….I did not see him but my friends saw him!… from the beach I saw all zadiacs and snorkelers “running” to the same place: poor Dugong it is hard to be a STAR! The Green Sea Turtle lives around 70 years and when they are adult (1.20 meter and 250 kg!) they pratically eat grass, sleep and breath all the day. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA



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