THE SEA IS THICK with turtles. They couple in the shallows, frantic flippers awkwardly fanning the air, and they tumble in the breakers that separate them and wash them ashore. Males paddle restlessly around the overwhelmingly outnumbered females wholumber wearily ashore for some respite on the sand before rejoining the fray. For green sea turtles on Western Australia's 26okm-long Ningaloo Reef, mating season has begun. They gather in their thousands, crowding just this one wide, blue bay sandwichedbetween the reef and the canyons of Cape Range, 25km west of Exmouth. This annual spectacle brings turtles into sharper focus than I've ever experienced beneath the waves, where green turtles can escape snorkellers at speeds of up to 32km/h. Found fromShark Bay across the Top End and right around to South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, the 1.5m reptile is one of Australia's largest and most common sea turtles.
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机译：海龟很厚。他们在浅滩中疯狂地踩着脚蹼，疯狂地扇动着空气，在摔倒的破碎机中摔倒，将它们分开并冲上岸。雄性不安地在数量众多的雌性周围不停地划桨，这些雌性疲倦地在岸上疲倦地在沙滩上喘息，然后重新加入战斗。对于西澳大利亚州长26公里的Ningaloo礁上的绿海龟来说，交配季节已经开始。他们聚集成千上万，拥挤在埃克斯茅斯以西25公里处的礁石和Cape Range峡谷之间的一个宽阔的蓝色海湾中。这种一年一度的奇观使海龟比我在海浪下经历过的更加清晰，在这里海龟可以以高达32 km / h的速度逃脱浮潜者。从鲨鱼湾顶端找到，一直延伸到南澳大利亚的艾尔半岛，这个150万只爬行动物是澳大利亚最大，最常见的海龟之一。
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