Page 281 - French Polynesia
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Sea Turtles: Wanderers of the Sea
Warm water cosatal provide nesting habitat for sea tur- beaches where they were born decades before. Over a period of
tles. Hawksbills are responsible for the most activity and weeks the females and adult males congregate in the open water
probably deposit more than 50 nests island-wide. Green turtles around Bonaire, engaging in courtship and mating. Beginning in
and loggerheads lay fewer nests, perhaps less than 20 for each April and continuing through December, females make repeated
species. The only time sea turtles come ashore is when adult crawls onto beaches where they lay their nests.
females emerge to lay their nests. Each year they arrive, some-
times from thousands of kilometers away. They return to the
