The green sea turtle is the largest sea turtle with a hard shell. It is named the green turtle, because of its colour. The body fat turns green caused by the sea turtle’s diet based on algae, which results in the discoloration. The green sea turtle can grow to humongous proportions. The biggest green sea turtle ever found measured more than one and a half metre and weighed way over 390 kilos. Normally they reach a length somewhere between one and one metre twenty, with a weight between 135 and 180 kilos. The green sea turtle, unlike his family members such as the Leatherback, is strictly vegetarian and lives on algae and sea grass. The habitat of the green turtle is confined to tropical and moderate waters and the female turtles come back to nest on the same beaches where they were born. This means often that green sea turtles migrate thousands of miles to find the right beach. Not every year the female green sea turtles nest, it can be with intervals of 2, 3 or even more years before the turtle returns. Because the green turtle relies on beds of sea grass to feed on, they spend their lives close to shore, which makes them extra vulnerable for the threats caused by the fishing industry. Many turtles get stuck in fishing nets or are ‘harvested’ as very lucrative by-catch. During a nesting season a female green turtle can come to shore three to five times and delivers every time around 115 eggs. In Costa Rica the green sea turtle can be found on the Caribbean and Pacific coast. On the Pacific coast most beaches where the green turtle can be found are in the Province of Guanacaste, but also on the Central and South Pacific coast of the Province of Puntarenas there are special protected areas, such as Manuel Antonio National Park close to Quepos and the National Ballena Marine Park close to Dominical. On the Caribbean Coast in the Province of Limon the green sea turtle comes ashore on the beaches of Parismina and Tortuguero in the north. But also close to Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo in the Talamanca region, south of the Gandoca – Mazanillo Wildlife Refuge, the beaches of the village of Gandoca close to the Panamanian border are frequented by the green sea turtle. It is estimated that there are approximately 88,000 nesting females worldwide, more than there are left of Leatherback turtles.