Saltwater crocodiles, as well as monitor lizards and foxes, sometimes eat small adult turtles while they are nesting. Its smooth olive-brown carapace is heart shaped. Its serrated beak, notched like the edge of a saw, helps it feed on turtle grass and other marine plants. Green sea turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean are called black sea turtles, although some scientists consider the black sea turtle a separate species. Names for its birdlike beak, the hawksbill usually nests near its feeding grounds and mates in shallow water off the nesting beach.
Hawksbills climb over reefs and rocks to nest among the roots of vegetation on beaches.
Very little is known of its habits. These tireless swimmers have been found throughout the world's oceans, as far north as Newfoundland and as far south as the southern coast of Chile. In many areas of the world, this turtle is hunted for its meat and eggs. A speedy nester, it spends only about forty-five minutes on the beach laying its eggs. Like the Kemp's ridley, it nests in arribadas .