#SEATURTLE BREATHING FREE#
These "tears" also help keep the eyes free of sand while females dig their nests. The secretion of salt and fluid makes them look as if they are "crying" when they come ashore. This gland empties into the sea turtles' eyes. Like other marine reptiles and seabirds, sea turtles have a salt gland to rid their bodies of excess salt. They obtain sufficient water from their diet and from metabolizing seawater. Sea turtles can live in seawater with no need for a freshwater source. This enables sea turtles to completely exchange all of the gases within their lungs in just a few breaths. Lung capacity exchange per breath ranges from 27% to 80% for sea turtles, which is much higher than for land reptiles. Myoglobin transports and stores oxygen in muscles tissue. The muscle of leatherbacks has a high content of the oxygen-binding protein myoglobin. Leatherbacks have high concentrations of red blood cells therefore, they can retain more oxygen.
#SEATURTLE BREATHING SKIN#
The hibernating turtles breathe without surfacing by absorbing dissolved oxygen through their skin and cloaca.ĭuring long dives, blood is shunted away from tissues tolerant of low oxygen levels toward the heart, brain, and central nervous system. Green and black sea turtles in some subtropical lagoons will burrow in the mud and hibernate throughout the chilly winter to slow their metabolism.Their heart rate slows to conserve oxygen: 9 minutes may elapse between heartbeats. Green sea turtles can stay under water for as long as 5 hours.Hawksbill turtles have been known to remain submerged for 35 to 45 minutes.This slowed metabolism allows them to stay submerged for long periods of time. Since they are cold-blooded, sea turtles have a slow metabolic rate.
They may reach depths of more than 1,190 m (3,900 ft.) seeking jellyfish for prey.
Leatherbacks routinely dive more than 305 m (1,000 ft.). Sea turtles are excellent divers.They typically spend most of their time beneath the ocean’s surface, up to 94% to 97%, which may help reduce predation and energy use. With the exception of females that come ashore to nest, sea turtles spend their entire lives at sea and are well adapted to an aquatic existence. The shell adaptations necessary for retractile extremities would impede rapid swimming. Leatherbacks have been recorded at speeds of 1.5 to 9.3 kph (0.9 to 5.8 mph).įorelimbs are modified into long, paddlelike flippers for swimming while the neck and limbs are non-retractile.The cruising speed for green sea turtles is about 1.5 to 2.3 kph (0.9 to 1.4 mph).
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