Scenery

Watch the sea turtles in their natural habitat

By kayak you can get much closer to the turtles than with any other craft. 

To get access to the area where the turtles are we paddle outside the reef although we sometomes see them also in the lagoon. Kayaking outside the reef is OK also for beginners when the sea is calm. Aleipata, the area where we watch turtles, is now declared as a "Marine Protected Area". Hunting turtles is banned as well as Scuba diving as a fishing method. 

Sea turtles are reptiles that lived in the oceans already during the Late Jurassic period; the earliest fossils known appeared 208 to 144 million years ago. There are 7 species of sea turtles in the world of which 6 of them live and breed in the Pacific Ocean. Two different types of sea turtles occur in Samoa, the Green turtle Chelonia mydas, the most common species, and the rarer Hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata. The Hawksbill is smaller in size and has a long beak-like mouth. 

Sea turtles are migratory animals. Research with tagged turtles suggest that some of them travel over 1000 km to find their nesting ground. 

There is no method known to estimate the age of sea turtles. The green turtle reach sexual maturity around the age of 25 years and it is suggested that they can live up to 80 years of age.   

More scenery: click on pictures below

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More information on sea turtles at http://www.earthtrust.org/wlcurric/turtles.html