The leatherback turtle is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest growing to just under 3m in length and weighting up to 500 kilograms. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell; instead, its carapace is covered by oily flesh and flexible, leather-like skin, for which it is named. They mostly feed on jellyfish and can be seen amongst jellyfish swarms around the UK & Irish coastline. They are the only marine turtle that can survive in our waters. The leatherback turtle is classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the ‘The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species’ with the population trend decreasing.
