Mangrove Cay and the Island’s Wildlife

Take A Journey into Nature’s Wonders

Green Turtles 

Most of the turtles you will see on the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour are green turtles. The adults usually inhabit shallow lagoons and waterways, mainly feeding on various species of seagrasses. The turtles bite off the tips of the seagrass blades, which keeps the grass healthy.

Sea turtles are the living representatives of a group of reptiles that have existed on Earth and traveled our seas for the last 100 million years. Green sea turtles migrate long distances between feeding grounds and hatching beaches. Females crawl out on beaches, dig nests, and lay eggs at night. Later, hatchlings emerge and scramble into the water. Those that reach maturity may live to 90 years in the wild! Anatomically, a few characteristics distinguish the green turtle from the other members of its family. Unlike its close relative, the hawksbill turtle (the other type of turtle often seen during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour), the green turtle’s snout is very short and its beak is unhooked.

The diet of green turtles changes with age. Juveniles are carnivorous, but as they mature, they become omnivorous. Young sea turtles eat fish and their eggs, jellyfish, small invertebrates, sponges, algae, sea grasses, leaves, and even tree bark. You might see them nibbling on the Turtle Grass that is abundant in the Mangrove Island channels you will be paddling through. 

Green sea turtles migrate long distances between feeding and nesting sites; some swim more than 2,600km (1,600 mi) to reach their spawning grounds. Mature turtles often return to the exact beach from which they hatched. Females usually mate every two to four years. Males, on the other hand, visit the breeding areas every year, attempting to mate. 

Sea turtles return to the beaches on which they were born to lay their eggs (called natal homing). The reason for returning to native beaches may be that it guarantees the turtles an environment with the necessary components for their nesting to be successful. These include a sandy beach, easy access for the hatchlings to get to the ocean, proper incubation temperatures, and low probability of predators that may feed on their eggs.

At around 50 to 70 days, the eggs hatch at night, and the hatchlings instinctively head directly into the water. This is the most dangerous time in a turtle’s life.

Sea turtles spend almost all their lives submerged but must breathe air for the oxygen needed to meet the demands of vigorous activity. With a single explosive exhalation and rapid inhalation, sea turtles can quickly replace the air in their lungs. During routine activity, green and loggerhead turtles dive for about four to five minutes and surface to breathe for one to three seconds.

Turtles can rest or sleep underwater for several hours at a time, but submergence time is much shorter while diving for food or to escape predators. During the night, while sleeping and protecting themselves from potential predators, the adults wedge under rocks below the surface and under ledges in reefs and coastal rocks. Many green sea turtles have been observed returning to the same sleeping location night after night.

Hawksbill Turtles 

The second most common turtle you are likely to encounter during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour is the hawksbill turtle. How can you tell them apart? Green turtles often have a clean shell with fan-shaped patterns on the scales, while hawksbill turtles have interlocking scales like roof tiles speckled with black spots and often have algae on top of their shell.

Hawksbill turtles grow to be smaller than green turtles. Green turtles can reach 1.2m and 120kg, while hawksbill turtles reach 0.9m and 90kg. However, nearly all of the green and hawksbill turtles you will see during the Turtle Tour through the mangrove islands are juveniles between 1-2 ft long (.5m and less).

Hawksbills feed mainly on sponges by using their narrow pointed beaks to extract them from crevices on the reef but also eat sea anemones and jellyfish. 

Juvenile Lemon Sharks

Around the Mangrove Island channels entrance is a large shallow area of sandy bottom that is only 1-2ft deep. This area is a very common place for juvenile lemon sharks to congregate. Most are about 1.5- 3 ft long (.5 – 1m) and challenging to see as they blend in very well with the sand.

Lemon sharks are, unsurprisingly, named after lemons. They have a yellowish tint to their skin, darker on their dorsal (back) side and lighter on their belly. This helps them blend into the sandy habitats where they search for food.

The lemon shark is one of over 1,000 species of shark. They are generally not considered to be dangerous to humans. This gentle nature makes them one of the most popular among shark divers and others who enjoy shark encounters. 

Lemon sharks are very social with each other and follow strict social rules and hierarchy. Their eyesight is poor; thus, they rely on electroreceptors called ampullae of Lorenzini.

On average, lemon sharks live up to 30 years. The largest lemon shark recorded was around 12.1 feet (3.7 m) long and weighed over 550 lbs (250kg). It is a skilled nocturnal predator, often preying on crustaceans, stingrays, and bony fish. Lemon sharks do not have known natural predators.

Upside-down Jellyfish (Cassiopea) 

If you look closely at the bottom of the mangrove channel, you might see jellyfish that appear to be lying on the bottom. If you look even closer, you will notice they seem to be jellyfish that are flipped upside down, hence their name. These upside-down jellyfish are very common in the shallow mangrove channels throughout the Turks and Caicos Islands, especially where turtle grass (found everywhere in the mangrove channels). They are relatively harmless and will only ‘sting’ very sensitive skin, like lips. If you were to touch them with your hands or feet, you would likely not notice any stinging sensation. 

Queen Conch

If you keep your eyes fixed on the bottom of the sea bed during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour, you will likely spot a queen conch. These are the same species of conch that you see on menus at restaurants here in the Turks and Caicos Islands. While they are a popular meal and once one of the most vital export marine species for our country, we are generally not supportive of harvesting them as their populations are now only a fraction of what they used to be ten years ago due to them being overfished. Luckily, many areas are protected from ‘conch diving’, such as the mangrove island channels!

Queen conch are slow-growing and late to mature, reaching up to 12 inches in length and living up to 30 years. The conch builds its shell out of calcium carbonate that it gets from the ocean. The shell grows with the snail-like creature you can see tucked into the shell. They reach sexual maturity after three years when their shells are about 8 in (20 cm) long. Most conch that you will encounter in the mangroves are between 6–12 in (15–30.5 cm) and weigh around 2-4lbs. The queen conch’s diet comprises seagrasses, algae, and organic debris.

The queen conch is best known for its bright pink, orange, or yellow coloring on the inside of the flared lip of its shell. You will likely come across their beautiful shells for sale at various places around the island. 

Red Mangrove

Mangroves are one of the most essential parts of the Turks and Caicos marine ecosystem. They are easy to spot due to their vast root systems above the ground and waterline. Red mangroves provide shelter for countless juvenile fish and birds and exceptional protection from erosion, especially during storms. The most common mangrove you will encounter during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour is the red mangrove, which gets its name from the bright red color of the wood underneath the bark of the tree. Red mangrove trees can grow up to 80 feet. In order to grow that big in a soft muddy environment, the red mangrove has adapted aerial ‘prop roots’ which help prop up the tree and give it a spider-like appearance. These aboveground prop roots transport air to their waterlogged belowground roots. 

You might notice the red mangroves’ “seeds” floating around. They are 6-inches long and have narrow tube-like sticks. These “seeds”  become fully mature plants before dropping off the parent tree. These are dispersed by water until eventually embedding in the shallows where they grow into large mangroves. 

Mangroves store more carbon than terrestrial forests and help fight coral bleaching. Mangroves help people weather the impacts of climate change — but they also help mitigate its causes. Globally, protecting mangrove forests can account for as much as 30 percent of the solution to climate change thanks to their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide. Mangroves have the capacity to take far more carbon out of the atmosphere than terrestrial forests; a patch of mangroves could absorb as much as 10 times the carbon of a similarly sized patch of terrestrial forest!

Black mangrove

Black mangroves are also very commonly seen during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour. They are more like a small tree or shrub when compared to the red mangrove. They can grow up to 12 meters (39 feet). Unlike red mangroves, they do not grow on prop roots. The lack of these prop roots is the easiest way to tell them apart from red mangroves.

Checkered Pufferfish

The mangrove roots are home to an abundant amount of checkered pufferfish. The pufferfish seen during the Mangrove Island Turtle Tour are about 4-6 inches long and have bright red eyes. 

The checkered puffer is one of several fish species belonging to the family Tetradontidae, meaning “four teeth.” Puffers have four tooth plates arranged in quadrants, with two teeth on the bottom and two on the top. These teeth form a robust and heavy beak capable of cracking through hard prey such as mollusks and crustaceans. Puffers are named for their ability to swell by swallowing water or air when threatened.