What is the green sea turtle doing laying on the sea floor for minutes on end? Is it hurt? Is it sick? Did it get injured? These are all questions that might pass through your mind when you see your first sea turtle sitting motionless on the bottom of the ocean. But don’t fret! This is normal behavior for these awe-inspiring animals. The green sea turtle, like all sea turtles, spends most of its life submerged below the water. Like all reptiles they need air to breathe, but their capacity to hold their breath far exceeds that of you or I. When a sea turtle comes to the surface, they quickly replace all the air in their lungs with a forceful exhalation followed by a deep inhalation. Their blood is attuned to efficiently delivering oxygen to its body tissues, even when it is diving deep beneath the surface.

Turtles can rest or sleep underwater not for seconds or minutes, but for several hours at a time. When a green sea turtle is sleeping at night, they can spend up to seven hours without taking a breath! During normal activity, they will typically surface for air every four to five minutes. If a sea turtle is stressed, like when it is entangled in a net or fishing line (an example of this is the green sea turtle that Matt photographed in our January 2020 gallery), they can quickly run out of the oxygen they need to survive.