About green turtles

• Green turtle is one of the largest sea turtles and the only herbivore among the different species. 
• Green turtles are in fact named for the greenish color of their cartilage and fat, not their shells. 
• Green turtles are found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters.
• In the Eastern Pacific, a group of green turtles that have darker shells are called black turtles by the local community.
• Like other sea turtles, they migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches from where they hatched. 
• Green turtles are threatened by overharvesting of their eggs, hunting of adults, being caught in fishing gear and loss of nesting beach sites.
• They are classified as as endangered as per IUCN Red list.
• Green turtles are also included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) appendix 1.

Why in news?

• As per a study, rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in the nesting range of green turtles in the Mediterranean Sea.