Breeding sea turtles in Captivity?

Mr Gharial

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Recently, the Green sea turtles in Wildlands, Emmen have laid eggs, although unfortunately they didn't lay them on the provided Artificial beach and they likely won't hatch.

From some older threads I've read that only Marineland Antibes in Southern France, Sea Life park Hawaii on one of the larger Hawaii islands and Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium on a small, southern isle of Japan have had success with breeding sea turtles in a captive setting.

Marineland Antibes:
full

Loggerhead sea turtle outdoor - 2010 - ZooChat

Sea life park:
full

Green Turtle pool - ZooChat

Okinawa Churaumi:
full

Sea Turtle pool - ZooChat

All of these seem to have open-topped enclosures very close to the sea in the breeding range of the turtles. So I was wondering what other parks have had success with breeding sea turtles in captivity, especially if any park have had success with breeding them outside of their breeding range, or in an enclosed habitat.
 
Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium has successfully bred loggerheads annually since 1995 - notably, the exhibit in which the turtles are kept and bred is fully indoors with artificial light. I've also read that green sea turtles have successfully laid eggs in the same exhibit, but I do not know if these eggs hatched. Hawksbill turtles are also kept in the same exhibit, but I do not know if they have bred there. Details of exhibit design and observations of breeding behaviour of the loggerheads are available in this paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356748292_Sexual_Selection_of_Loggerhead_Turtles_Caretta_caretta_in_Captivity
 
Nagoya Aquarium in Japan is likely the only facility in the world that has successfully bred multiple species of sea turtles entirely indoors. In 1995, it became the first in the world to achieve indoor breeding of loggerhead turtles, and by 2023 more than 10,000 hatchlings had emerged, most of which have been released into the wild. Eggs laid on the aquarium’s indoor artificial beach are transferred to an adjacent research facility’s incubation room, where they are kept at around 29 °C to produce a nearly equal sex ratio. The aquarium also became the first to achieve indoor breeding of green turtles in 2003, although it took another 18 years before the next success. In addition, it was the first in the world to succeed in breeding hawksbill turtles indoors.

EDIT
As for loggerhead turtles, the aquarium has also succeeded in second-generation breeding.
 
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