Green turtles

Before beginning our dive this morning, as soon as I put on my mask, and looked around in the water, I found a small (10 to 12 inches), untagged, green turtle about 4 feet away.  I turned on my camera as quickly as possible, and luckily the settings were appropriate for one quick photo.

Over the years, we have seen many turtles, but most of them have been another species (hawksbill turtles), larger, and tagged with ID tags on their front flippers.  As you might guess from these photos, the name "green" turtle doesn't describe their shell color -- which is brown.  Instead, the name comes from the color of their fatty tissue.

Last week, at a site that was miles farther north, I encountered another young untagged green turtle.

Any dive that includes the sighting of a healthy turtle is a good dive.