It’s Coral Week.  Sea turtles go with coral like, well, sea turtles and coral.

Jeremy Jackson described the enormous numbers of sea turtles once roaming and shaping the Caribbean reefs and seagrass beds before Columbus.  In the east Pacific where I do most of my turtling the coral reefs are smaller.  People know all about hawksbills and reefs, in particular that hawksbills LOVE sponges. 

But turtles, it turns out, also eat corals--even in the ETP.

Green turtles love octocorals...specifically sea pens.  Green turtles are largely considered herbivores.  But in some parts of the world that’s just not true.

Check out this video of a green turtle just going to town on a sea pen (thanks to Jeff Seminoff and National Geographic).  This is the kind of video that makes us turtle freaks kind of excited and keeps us up late at night. 

The team scanned hours upon hours of turtle vids for these sorts of juicy nuggets.  Watching  the video over and over, just for that one golden moment. 

Check out the full Turtle Cam show on seaturtle.org.

So, as you and your friends celebrate Coral Week and the International Year of the Reef I’d like you to keep three things in mind: 1) soft coral is coral too, 2) sea turtles need coral, coral needs you, and you need coral reefs, and 3) always wear your helmet.