Green Sea Turtle

Photo: MARC MARTIN SOLA · CC BY-NC

Turtles use the cave's sand floor as a resting platform and are almost always present during the midday hours when they are least active. One or two individuals typically occupy the same positions dive after dive, rising periodically to the cave's air pocket at the far interior to breathe without leaving the site. This behavior gives Lobster Cave an intimacy to turtle encounters that differs from open reef sites — the animals are visibly relaxed and stationary rather than swimming past.