Page 257 - The Virgin Islands

Sea Turtles: Wanderers of the Sea

Warm water cosatal provide nesting habitat for sea turtles. they were born decades before. Over a period of weeks the females
Hawksbills are responsible for the most activity and prob- and adult males congregate in the open water around Bonaire, en-
ably deposit more than 50 nests island-wide. Green turtles and gaging in courtship and mating. Beginning in April and continuing
loggerheads lay fewer nests, perhaps less than 20 for each spe- through December, females make repeated crawls onto beaches
cies. The only time sea turtles come ashore is when adult females where they lay their nests.
emerge to lay their nests. Each year they arrive, sometimes from
thousands of kilometers away. They return to the beaches where