Virgin Islands - The waters adjacent to Sandy Point, St. Croix beginning at the southwest cape to the south and running 1.2 miles northwest and then northeast along the western and northern shoreline, and from the southwest cape 0.7 miles east along the southern shoreline. Virgin Islands - A strip of land 0.2 miles wide (from mean high tide inland) at Sandy Point Beach on the western end of the island of St. Their preferred beaches have proximity to deep water and generally rough seas.ĬRITICAL HABITAT: 50 CFR 17.95 U.S. Adult females require sandy nesting beaches backed with vegetation and sloped sufficiently so the distance to dry sand is limited.

HABITAT: The leatherback is the most pelagic of the sea turtles. The paddle-like clawless limbs are black with white margins and pale spotting. Hatchlings are predominantly black with white flipper margins and keels on the carapace. Jellyfish are the main staple of its diet, but it is also known to feed on sea urchins, squid, crustaceans, tunicates, fish, blue-green algae, and floating seaweed. The adult leatherback can reach 4 to 8 feet in length and 500 to 2000 pounds in weight. Its shell is composed of a mosaic of small bones covered by firm, rubbery skin with seven longitudinal ridges or keels. The skin is predominantly black with varying degrees of pale spotting including a notable pink spot on the dorsal surface of the head in adults. A toothlike cusp is located on each side of the gray upper jaw the lower jaw is hooked anteriorly. STATUS: Endangered throughout its range ( Federal Register, June 2, 1970).ĭESCRIPTION: The leatherback is the largest, deepest diving, and most migratory and wide ranging of all sea turtles. Leatherback Sea Turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea)

Black and white 2 turtle