Five species of sea turtles are found along the Brazilian coast: green turtle, Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758); hawksbill
turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766); olive ridley, Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829); loggerhead, Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758); and leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) (MARCOVALDI & MARCOVALDI 1985). Each species has distinct alimentary habits, and some may have different diets according to their pelagic and/or benthic phase. Some species feed on jellyfish or oceanic fish, whereas others are herbivores and consume gramineous plants and sea algae along coastal regions (PEREIRA & SOARES-GOMES 2002). Under natural conditions, C. caretta and D. coriacea are carnivorous, E. imbricata, and L. olivacea are omnivorous, and C. mydas is the only herbivorous species of sea turtle (BJORNDAL 1997, BRANDGARDNER
et al. 1999, CHEVALIER & LARTIGES 2001).