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haggan betde turtle guam museum

Haggan or Haggan betde in CHamoru is the Green Sea Turtle

Although an endangered and protected species, you can still see haggan in Guam’s waters. They frequent shallow reef areas where they forage for algae and sea grass. The largest haggan can be more than five feet in terms of shell length and weigh more than 700 pounds. They can live to be more than 80 years old.

One of the most amazing facts about the haggan is their ability to return to the beaches where they were born. For example, haggan born in the Mariana Islands, will make voyages sometimes over 1400 miles to the Philippines and Japan to feed and grow. Years later they will return later to the Marianas, to mate and lay eggs at the same beaches where they were born.

Haggan have been in the Marianas for thousands of years, longer than humans. And over that millennia they have been returning to the same beaches where they were born, to lay their eggs, continuing this beautiful cycle of life.

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Spondylus shells

Spondylus shells

SummarySpondylus shells carved to make beads were a very important form of body adornment during the Latte period of CHamoru history (800 AD – 1700

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