Species: Eretmochelys imbricata
Bundjalung name: Unknown
Status (IUCN): Critically Endangered

Characteristics

• • Length/size: Hawksbill turtles have a high domed carapace that is approximately 82cm in length. Hatchlings have a carapace that is around 4cm in length. Adult turtles weigh around 50kg.

• • Colour: Adult turtles have thick, overlapping carapace scutes. At the edge of the carapace, these  scutes form a serrated edge. Adults have olive-green or brown colouration, which is often variegated with brown or black markings. Hatchlings have a brown/black coloured plastron. 

• • Breeding/reproduction: Hawksbill turtles reach sexual maturity at around 25-40 years of age. They can lay around 122 eggs and are known to lay between one and six clutches per season and return every 2-4 years. After hatching, these turtles will spend five to ten years drifting in the ocean and not returning to the coastal areas of Australia until they are around 38cm in length.

• • Diet: Hawksbills are omnivorous and predominantly eat sponges, soft corals, jellyfish and red crustose coralline algae. They can also eat shellfish and seagrasses. Their unique diet, with prey containing cytotoxins, has meant that they have developed an immunity to these toxins and instead bioaccumulate them in their tissues. Their name comes from their pointed bird-like beaks, that they use to reach their food in the crevices between hard corals.

Habitat: Hawksbill turtles can be found in tidal and subtidal coral and rocky reef habitats, throughout tropical and warm temperate waters. 

Threats: Despite being toxic and protected under CITES, Hawksbill turtles are still particularly sought after for use in products made and sold as  ‘tortoise shell’. Tortoise shell products are made from the scutes harvested from hawksbill sea turtles and can include jewellery, artwork, hair pins and other accessories. These products are unsustainable and hawksbill turtles are listed as critically endangered in the Asia- Pacific because of the illegal wildlife trade.

Because Hawksbill turtles bioaccumulate cytotoxins in their tissues, unlike other species of marine turtles in the world, they are not predominantly harvested for their meat. Their flesh can in fact be extremely poisonous or even deadly!  Instead they are really only harvested for their eggs and carapace. Like all turtle species, climate change, increasing nest temperatures, marine debris, entanglement, light pollution and habitat modification are all large threats to the long-term survival of this species.