The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) chews glass and swallows poison. It's a contender for the ocean's ultimate tough guy. It lives in tropical seas throughout the world, typically inhabiting the shallow, turquoise waters of a coral reef. However, the wideranging sea turtle has been found as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and as far south as Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
Among its most distinctive features are the hooked bill that inspired its common name, and the overlapping scutes (or scales) on its shell near the tail that give the shell a saw-toothed look, and the turtle its species name. Imbricata comes from a Latin word meaning "overlapping tiles."
Hawksbill turtles eat a wide variety of creatures, from mussels to jellyfi sh, but they seem to have a particular fondness for sea sponges, particularly the glass sponges that most other animals avoid. These glass sponges have two defenses: a skeleton of silica spicules,basically glass needles, and potent toxins. (The natural sponges used for bathing, on the other hand, have skeletons made of a fibrous protein.)
In the Caribbean, hawksbills dine almost exclusively on sea sponges, and are known to be finicky about the species of sponge they eat. This may be a good thing for the coral reefs where both live, since sponges and corals compete for space. The turtle's favorite Caribbean sponge is also a major threat to Belize's corals.
Hooked beak, serrated shell, dangerous diet. You would think that such a tough creature would be able to take on all comers, but the hawksbill turtle has a surprising weakness: its own beauty.
We call it "tortoiseshell," but it doesn't come from a tortoise. Instead, it is the shell of a mediumsized, shallow-dwelling sea turtle, the hawksbill. The Japanese call it bekko. For generations, the translucent outer shell of the hawksbill, mottled in shades of brown and yellow, was prized for its appearance and flexibility. Before the invention of plastics, few other substances had similar qualities.
In the West, it was primarily used for eyeglass frames, but also for calling-card cases and snuff boxes. In Japan it was used particularly for combs and hairpins. A bekko comb is a traditional adornment of a Japanese bride, the cultural equivalent of our "something blue." It's also the traditional material for the hair accessories of a maiko, or apprentice geisha.
The hawksbill's cultural importance is not limited to its shell. Among the islands of the South Pacific, hawksbill turtle meat is food for feasts, such as funeral banquets. As a creature of coral reefs, rarely found at depths of more than 65 feet, it is a delicacy in reach of a fisherman in a canoe. Its ritual significance is similar to eating turkey on Thanksgiving, and continues in spite of the fact that occasionally the turtle meat sickens or kills those who eat it, possibly because some turtles fail to fully process the toxins in their sponge diet.
In Latin America sea turtles managed to swim through one of the loopholes in the religious rule of not eating meat on Fridays during pre-Easter Lenten season. As a creature of the sea, it was categorized with fish, and therefore permitted. In Central America, sea turtle eggs are considered an aphrodisiac. Hawksbill turtles appear on the back of the Brazilian two Reais banknote, and the Venezuelan 20 Bolivares note.
Scientific name: Megaptera novaeangliae
Famous for their acrobatics, humpback whales carry out a range of spectacular behaviors in play, communication, parasite removal, and to express excitement or annoyance. These behaviors include breaching, lobtailing, and flippering.
The scientific name for the humpback whale means "great wing of New England" and with flippers up to 15 feet long—about one-third the length of their bodies—it's clear to see how they got their name. Its huge flippers help distinguish humpbacks from other whales.
These creatures average 45 feet in length. Female humpbacks tend to be larger than males. Humpbacks have black dorsal sides, white, black, or mottled undersides, and white or black flippers.
Humpback whales make a wide array of sounds from trills and chirps to groans, moans, and roaring. By combining sounds, the males form complex and hauntingly beautiful songs in their efforts to attract mates or warn off other males.
Humpback whales live throughout all the world's oceans. They migrate large distances from their spring through fall feeding grounds at the edges of the polar ice to their winter calving grounds in tropical waters.
Humpbacks have a generalist diet, feeding on krill and various types of small schooling fish such as herring, capelin, sand lance, and mackerel.
The social organization of humpback whales is characterized by small unstable groups. Individuals typically associate with many companions on both feeding and breeding grounds.
Males and females become sexually mature at age five. Mothers give birth in midwinter after an 11-month gestation period. Calves begin to feed independently after six months, but continue to nurse for about a year.
Listed as an endangered species today, humpback whales are protected from commercial whaling. For several centuries the whaling industry heavily exploited these animals. Some populations decreased by 90 percent during the most intensive whaling periods.
Though whaling restrictions have helped humpback populations recover in many areas, numerous whales die each year from entanglement in fishing gear or collisions with ships.