Green Sea Turtle

Photo: MARC MARTIN SOLA · CC BY-NC

Green sea turtles are year-round residents of El Puertito's seagrass beds, with a population of identifiable individuals regularly observed grazing Posidonia oceanica at depths of 3 to 10 metres within the same area used by angel sharks and stingrays. The Canary Islands sit at the intersection of the Atlantic green turtle's oceanic juvenile dispersal phase and the adult resident feeding phase, and Tenerife's warm year-round waters make it among the northernmost reliable year-round turtle feeding habitats in the eastern Atlantic. These turtles appear to have largely ceased the Atlantic crossing migration documented in earlier tagged individuals, instead establishing long-term residency in the food-rich Canarian waters — a behavioural shift that conservation researchers are actively monitoring at El Puertito.