SUBMON
  • Element del menú
    • About us
      • Mission, vision y values
      • Our team
      • Transparency
    • Activity
      • Conservation and marine biodiversity
      • Environmental education and training workshops
      • Restoration, improvement and mitigation of impact on species of marine ecosystems projects
      • Sustainable activities for marine environment
    • Collaborate
      • Participate in our projects
      • Companies
    • News
    • Contact
    • Element del menú
  • en
    • ca
    • es
    • en
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • ca
  • es
  • en
SUBMON
  • About us
    • Mission, vision y values
    • Our team
    • Transparency
  • Activity
    • Conservation and marine biodiversity
    • Environmental education and training workshops
    • Restoration, improvement and mitigation of impact on species of marine ecosystems projects
    • Sustainable activities for marine environment
  • Collaborate
    • Participate in our projects
    • Companies
  • News
  • Contact
  • Element del menú
Environmental education and awareness

Diving adaptations in sea turtles

March 9, 2022
By Mariluz Parga
0 Comment
3152 Views

Marine turtles are among the longest and deepest diving of the air-breathing vertebrates. In fact, these animals spend less than 10% of their time at the sea surface. The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the best adapted to diving of sea turtles, reaches depths of over 1,000m, and voluntary dives of between 2 and 5 hours have been recorded. How do they do it? This is not fully understood today – it is very complicated to investigate these animals’ physiology in the wild without capturing them, which would in turn completely modify the animal’s behavior due to stress.

In this post, we try to summarize the most important adaptations of sea turtles to deep diving.

Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) underwater. Kei Islands, Moluccas, Indonesia. 21 November 2009

Sea turtles are anatomically adapted to life at sea: completely hydrodynamic, with a shorter neck and a smaller carapace mass than its land and sweet water relatives, and non-retractile head and limbs. Their front flippers are flattened and are used for propulsion, while the back flippers, short and flat, work as a rudder. The nares are fully closed under the water to avoid water entering the mouth and respiratory system.

 

But it is their unique physiological adaptations that allow a very efficient and fast gaseous exchange when the animal breaths at the surface, and maximum storage of oxygen in the body while diving.

Great capacity to store oxygen

When a sea turtle carries out shallow dives most of the oxygen is stored in the lungs, from where it goes to the bloodstream and tissues. However, for the deep dives, sea turtles depend on the oxygen stored in the blood and muscles. Sea turtles (especially the leatherback) show a high concentration of hemoglobin and red blood cells in the blood, and of myoglobin in muscles, which allows them to store a high amount of oxygen in the body, easily available for the tissues during the dive. The lungs also show a large surface for gas exchange, facilitating the entrance of oxygen into the blood with each breath. All this makes a sea turtle breath much more efficient than ours.

Good management of oxygen

Sea turtles, as cold-blooded animals (they cannot thermoregulate and depend on the external temperature – with different aspects that we’ll explain in another post), show a slower metabolism than mammals. This allows them to resist longer with the same amount of oxygen than, for example, a seal. In addition, when preparing for deep dives, sea turtles activate a “diving reflex”, which allows them to reduce the heart rate and limit the blood supply to those organs and tissues that are essential for diving, thus further reducing oxygen consumption. Lastly, they are extremely tolerant to hypoxia. Especially the brain, which at least in the loggerhead sea turtle, and contrary to that of marine mammals, has been proved to survive up to several hours without oxygen.

And how can they stand the pressure at depth, which affects us so much?

Contrary to what it seems, the carapace of sea turtles is not completely fused with the plastron (the ventral part); there is a small space with connective tissue which allows for some degree of movement and compression. This comes to maximum expression in the leatherback turtle, which does not have an osseous carapace. Furthermore, the respiratory system (lungs and airways) of sea turtles collapses at depths of around 80-160m, reducing the problem of narcosis due to dissolved nitrogen, or decompression syndrome during ascend after long, deep dives. Some air remains in them, but in areas where there’s no gas exchange. Blood circulation into the lungs is also interrupted during diving. However, leatherback turtles have been seen to modify the time spent at different depths and to ascend slowly from deeper dives, avoiding thus the formation of nitrogen bubbles on the ascent.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Whatsapp

Previous Story
Marine EcoMed Project comes to an end
Next Story
The world’s second largest whale in our waters

Related Articles

huevos tiburones y rayas

Shark and ray eggs in Spain: learn how to identify them and collaborate with data collection

Due to the collaboration between The Shark Trust, Sanamares, Lamna...

el buzo invisible SUBMON LIFE INTEMARES

Science and art: connecting through emotions for ocean conservation

The LIFE INTEMARES project is extending its awareness-raising programme with...

Leave your comment Cancel Reply

(will not be shared)

Join our newsletter

Categories

  • Conservation
  • Environmental education and awareness
  • Mitigation of environmental impact
  • Sustainable development
  • Uncategorized

Popular posts

  • A Strategic Research Agenda for Oceans and Human Health in Europe
  • Seagrasses: the great (un)known
  • Incorporation of new staff
  • How do whales help mitigate climate change?
  • Project SOPHIE – SUBMON takes part in new European project linking oceans, tourism and human health
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Legal notice

© SUBMON
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

SUBMON complies fully with the current legislation for the protection of personal data, and the requirement for confidentiality for content management services.

SUBMON has adopted the necessary technical measures to ensure the required level of security, according to the nature and circumstances of the personal data being processed, in order to avoid its alteration, loss, unauthorised access or processing, as far as possible and according to the techniques employed.

Where personal data is required when filling in a form, the client or user will be informed of the recipient and purpose of the information, the identity and address of the individual or company responsible for the file and the right of the user to access, rectify, cancel or object to the processing of their data. Personal data will only be processed and/or released for the purpose expressed, and then only with the permission of the user or client.

In order to always keep our database up to date and to ensure that it does not contain errors, we request that our clients and users inform us as soon as possible of any modification or rectification to their personal data which may be necessary.

Some of the pages of the SUBMON site contain cookies, which are small data files generated in the computer of the user or client which enable the system to remember the language and site, as well as other characteristics and navigation preferences chosen by the user during their first visit. These cookies are not invasive, nor do they carry virus or personal data, and their only function is to personalise navigation according to the choices made previously by the user. If you wish, you can deactivate and/or eliminate cookies by following the instructions which appear in our Security Recommendations .
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
SearchPostsLoginCart
Thursday, 23, Mar
Shark and ray eggs in Spain: learn how to identify them and collaborate with data collection
Wednesday, 8, Mar
Science and art: connecting through emotions for ocean conservation
Thursday, 23, Feb
First trials to replant shoots of Neptune seagrass torn up by storms
Wednesday, 8, Feb
1360 kg of marine litter has been removed from seagrass meadows on the coast of Tarragona
Wednesday, 30, Nov
From Sea to Fork: European Sea2See project for seafood traceability
Wednesday, 23, Nov
EU Ocean Mission 2030: a tool to assess Marine Protected Areas effectiveness in six steps

Welcome back,