A lot of the courtship and mating behavior of sea turtles is still a mystery to us humans, but it is believed to happen during a very limited “receptive” period before a female’s first nesting. The act of mating itself begins with mild flirtation from the male, who will nudge her head with his and gently nip her neck or flipper to see if she’s in the mood. If she doesn’t run for the hills he takes this as a good sign, uses the claws in his front flippers to attach himself to the back of her shell, folding his tail under her shell to seal the deal.The whole story can be found at http://marymaguiresblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/sea-turtle-season/

Copulation can occur either on the surface or under water, and it is not uncommon to see several males fighting for the chance to be with one female. Most females will mate with several males in a season and store the sperm prior to nesting, meaning her eggs are fertilized by more than one male, increasing the population’s genetic diversity.

A pregnant female will take to the beach for nesting, where she uses her hind flippers to dig a hole 16 to 20 inches deep. She will then fill this hole with 50 to 200 of her soft-shelled eggs. The eggs are then covered with sand and the area is smoothed over to hide the nest. Mama then returns to the sea, leaving her babies to fend for themselves.

It is important to note that it takes several decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity, one of the many reasons why the poaching of young and adolescent sea turtles is so harmful to their population numbers. Stricter monitoring and protection of the breeding grounds, nesting areas, and estuaries where young turtles grow into maturity is essential to sea turtle conservation efforts.