Punta Tunich 5/28 - what kind of turtle is this?

[bhalah]

That explains why I never seem to see anything but Hawksbills. I was going on the pointy bits on the shell too.

Me too....up until now

 

[DandyDon]

Maybe the same DM told us that? Anyone got Jorge's phone number?

 

[Mossman]

Oh... I have to be # 1 of DD's 10 disagreements. It's a green.
"They are easily distinguished from other sea turtles because they have a single pair of prefrontal scales (scales in front of its eyes), rather than two pairs as found on other sea turtles." Sea Turtle Conservancy - Loading...

Their heads also have that much more rounded appearance, the beak is not shaped similar to a raptor beak, their scutes have those beautiful shades of tan and often blue or green...

Also the scutes are distinct, not overlapping as on the hawksbill.

 

[ROXANNE]

That really is a nice shot!

 

[DandyDon]

I stand so corrected...!

He does have a Green's head, certainly not a Hawkbill's. I was really impressed that he shot the pic with a DC500 and no flash, but he does use better PC software than I.

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ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MaxApertureValue - F 3.14
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
LightSource - Daylight
Flash - Flash not fired, auto mode
FocalLength - 5.40 mm
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[Pelagicsal]

But Don! Only five of us disagreed...

They are such gorgeous turtles. Nothing about them that is not turtle-like... Nice smooth carapace, placid expression, look sooooo cuddly.

 

[BrewingDiver]

Thanks, guys. I have to credit my wife (Scubabun) for the photo. This was her first week ever doing UW photography and using my old DC500. For the last 2 years I've been using my DC1000 with a strobe, but she was backup this trip. So far all I did in Photoshop was to crop it a little and more importantly shrink the file to post here. I also spent only a minute trying to get some color out of it and reduce the green. I need to re-learn the software if we want something better, but it is sharp and composed very well, so I will work on it when I get things caught up here.

We did not even realize it was not a hawksbill until we saw the photo. I think I passed up shooting it because we had seen a few turtles up close already during the week, and I was a little down-current and on his back side.