How big are leatherback turtles?
• Leatherbacks are the largest of all the sea turtles, measuring up to 2.4m (6 ft) long and 1.6m (4 ft) wide. • The average weight of a leatherback turtle is around 400 kg (880 pounds). • The maximum recorded weight of a leatherback is 916 kg (2015 pounds). Where do leatherback turtles live? There are several populations of leatherback turtles that live in very different parts of the world: • Eastern Pacific leatherbacks nest in Costa Rica and Mexico and travel to both South America (off Chile and Peru) and California. • Western Pacific leatherbacks nest in areas such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Mariana Islands of the South Pacific and travel across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the US and Canada to forage for food. • Atlantic leatherbacks nest in places like the southern states of the US, the Caribbean, Trinidad, French Guyana, Mexico, and Western Africa. They travel to various locations throughout the Atlantic as far as the Eastern Coast of Canada even to South Africa an
