---
title: Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
scientific_name: Eretmochelys imbricata
common_name: Hawksbill Turtle
taxon: Sea turtles
conservation_status: CR - Critically Endangered
published: 2023-12-31T16:49:11.407Z
updated: 2026-08-08T19:45:17.212Z
tags: Hawksbill Turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, Sea turtles, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/hawksbill-turtle
---

# Hawksbill Turtle (*Eretmochelys imbricata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea turtles (*Chelonioidea*)
- **Size:** 80 - 100 cm
- **Weight:** 80 - 127 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-300 m
- **Max age:** 50 yrs
- **Diet:** Spongivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral reefs, coastal reefs, lagoons
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric, Temperature-dependent sex
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **CITES:** Appendix I
- **Conservation status:** CR - Critically Endangered

## How to recognise it

- colorful shell with amber, brown, red, black, and yellow patterns
- shell with overlapping scutes creating a saw-like edge
- tapered head with sharp, hooked beak

A sea turtle built around one tool: a narrow head ending in a sharp hooked beak, made for reaching into crevices that broader-jawed turtles cannot work. The shell is the other giveaway - amber, brown, red, black and yellow, with scutes overlapping like roof tiles so that the rear edge comes out serrated, which is what the name imbricata records. Adults reach about 1 m (3 ft) and 80 kg (180 lb), and large animals go to 127 kg (280 lb).

It inhabits shallow coral reefs, foraging at depths typically less than 20 m (65 ft) but occasionally deeper. Its diet consists predominantly of sponges, making up 70-95% of its intake, including species containing glass spicules and potent chemical defences that are toxic to most other marine animals. This turtle also preys on cnidarians such as the Portuguese man o' war, closing its eyes to protect against stings while feeding. By grazing on sponges, which compete with corals for substrate, hawksbills create space for coral settlement, thus influencing reef structure and biodiversity. They are typically solitary.

Females mature at approximately twenty years and nest every second or third season, making multiple trips ashore within a nesting period to bury clutches of around 140 eggs. Incubation lasts 47 to 75 days, with warmer sand reducing development time. Egg temperature also determines sex; nests above approximately 29 °C produce females, while cooler nests yield males. Hatchlings, measuring roughly 2.5 cm (1 in) and weighing under 24 g (0.85 oz), emerge at night and orient towards the brightest horizon to find the sea, though coastal artificial lighting often disorients them, drawing them inland.

The shell that makes the species recognisable is also what nearly finished it: tortoiseshell was worked into combs and jewellery for centuries, and the trade pushed the population down far enough that it is now critically endangered, with all international trade banned. Nets and lost fishing gear remain the everyday threat on these reefs.

## Also known as

- **English:** hawksbill turtle, Hawksbill, Atlantic Hawksbill Sea Turtle
- **Arabic:** اللجأة صقريَّة المنقار, سلحفاة صقرية المنقار, لجأة صقرية المنقار
- **Hebrew:** צב ים קרני
- **French:** caret, tortue caret, tortue imbriquée
- **Italian:** tartaruga embricata
- **German:** echte Karettschildkröte
- **Spanish:** tortuga carey, tortuga carey del pacifico, tortuga de carey
- **Greek:** Κεραμοχελώνα
- **Turkish:** şahin gagalı kaplumbağa
- **Portuguese:** Tartaruga-Verdadeira, Tartaruga-de-Escamas, Tartaruga-de-Pente
- **Dutch:** Karetschildpad
- **Polish:** żółw szylkretowy
- **Czech:** kareta pravá
- **Japanese:** タイマイ
- **Chinese:** 太平洋玳瑁, 毒瑁, 玳瑁
- **Ukrainian:** Біса, справжня каретта, Бісса, Карета справжня
- **Russian:** Бисса
- **AF:** Valkbekseeskilpad
- **BG:** bisа, Биса
- **CHA:** Haggan
- **CYM:** Crwbanod Môr Gwalchbig, crwban môr gwalchbig
- **DA:** Karetteskildpadde
- **EPO:** Martestudo
- **FI:** karettikilpikonna
- **HU:** közönséges cserepesteknős
- **ID:** Penyu Sisik
- **KO:** 대모, 매부리바다거북
- **LT:** bisa
- **MLG:** Fano hara
- **MRI:** Honu
- **MSA:** Penyu Karah
- **MYA:** လိပ်စွန်
- **NO:** Ekte Karett, Karett
- **SL:** prava kareta
- **TAM:** அழுங்காமை
- **TGL:** Pawikan
- **TH:** เต่ากระ

## Scientific synonyms

- *Eretmochelys squamosa*
- *Testudo imbricata* Linnaeus, 1766

## Range

Gulf of Mexico, Ireland, Kenya, Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-turtles/hawksbill-turtle)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*