09/15/2026
🐢💧 DID YOU KNOW… SEA TURTLES CRY?
Well… sort of! 😢🐢If you’ve ever seen a sea turtle with tears running down its face, don’t worry—it’s not sad! ❤️ Those “tears” are actually the turtle’s way of getting rid of extra salt from its body. 🌊🧂
Sea turtles spend their lives surrounded by salty ocean water and also swallow salt when they eat things like jellyfish and crabs. Since they can’t simply drink seawater and let their kidneys handle all that salt, they have special salt glands near their eyes that remove the excess.
So when you see a Loggerhead “crying,” it’s really doing some pretty amazing salt-shedding science! 🤓🐢
And here’s the fun part:
🌊 The tears are actually saltier than the ocean!
While a turtle is swimming, these salty tears wash away unnoticed. But when a turtle comes ashore to nest, we can sometimes see the tears rolling down its face.
So the next time you see a “crying” sea turtle on Anna Maria Island, remember:
It’s not crying because it’s sad… it’s just getting salty! 😂🧂🐢
💗 Happy Turtle Tuesday from Anna Maria Island!
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch & Shorebird Monitoring, AMITW BLUNT photographic Angie Blunt
