Green turtle - Population & Distribution

A truly international species

Current Population and Distribution
There are important green turtle nesting and feeding grounds around the whole coast of Africa, India and South East Asia, along the entire tropical coastline of Australia and the South Pacific Islands. They are also found in the Mediterranean and occasionally as far north as the coastal waters of Great Britain.

In the West Atlantic the range extends from Cape Cod through Central America as far south as southern Brazil. Populations in the Eastern Pacific stretch from northern USA to the southernmost record in northern Chile. Nesting occurs widely throughout the range, even on the central Pacific islands, where few other species of nesting turtles now occur.

Marine turtle numbers are almost impossible to estimate because of their migratory lifestyle. Estimates of numbers of nesting females are possible, but data is not available from all beaches and numbers may be confused due to the uncertainty of how many times an individual nests in a season.

A current estimate of worldwide numbers of breeding female green turtles is 203,000. 1989 data suggest the main nesting beaches were in Queensland, Australia and in Indonesia.