In general, it has a flattened body shape, a protective carapace, and flipper-like limbs, adapted for swimming in the open ocean.

E. imbricata is easily distinguished from other sea turtles by its sharp, curving beak with prominent tomium, and the saw-like appearance of its shell margins.

While this turtle lives part of its life in the open ocean, it spends more time in shallow lagoons and coral reefs.

The World Conservation Union, primarily as a result of human fishing practices, classifies E. imbricata as critically endangered.

Adult hawksbill sea turtles typically grow to 1 m (3 ft) in length, weighing around 80 kg (180 lb) on average.

[8] The turtle's shell, or carapace, has an amber background patterned with an irregular combination of light and dark streaks, with predominantly black and mottled-brown colors radiating to the sides.

Its elongated, tapered head ends in a beak-like mouth (from which its common name is derived), and its beak is more sharply pronounced and hooked than others.

It is unknown if the effect is due to the turtle's diet, which includes biofluorescent organisms like the hard coral Physogyra lichtensteini.

[15][16] Hawksbill sea turtles have a wide range, found predominantly in tropical reefs of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans.

[17] In the Atlantic, hawksbill populations range as far west as the Gulf of Mexico and as far southeast as the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

350 linear miles), the Hawksbill Project focuses on representative sites in the northern, central, and southern sections of the Southeast Florida Reef Tract.

Dahican Beach in Mati City, Davao Oriental, hosts one of the essential hatcheries of its kind, along with olive ridley sea turtles in the archipelagic country of the Philippines.

[28] A 2018 article by The Straits Times reported that around 120 hawksbill juvenile turtles recently hatched at Pulau Satumu, Singapore.

[29] Commonly found in Singapore waters, hawksbill turtles have returned to areas such East Coast Park and Palau Satumu to nest.

[32] Hawksbill sea turtles nest as far west as Cousine Island in the Seychelles, where the species since 1994 is legally protected, and the population is showing some recovery.

[35] Important remnant nesting and foraging sites have since been discovered in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, providing new research and conservation opportunities.

In contrast to their traditional roles in other parts of the world, where hawksbills primarily inhabit coral reefs and rocky substrate areas, in the eastern Pacific, hawksbills tend to forage and nest principally in mangrove estuaries, such as those present in the Bahia de Jiquilisco (El Salvador), Gulf of Fonseca (Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras), Estero Padre Ramos (Nicaragua), and the Gulf of Guayaquil (Ecuador).

As a highly migratory species, they inhabit a wide range of habitats, from the open ocean to lagoons and even mangrove swamps in estuaries.

[40] Aside from sponges, hawksbills feed on algae, marine plants (seagrasses), woody plant remains, mangrove fruits and seeds, cnidarians (comb jellies and other jellyfish, hydrozoans, hard corals, corallimorphs, zoanthids, and sea anemones), bryozoans, mollusks (squid, snails, nudibranchs, bivalves, and tusk shells), echinoderms (sea cucumbers and sea urchins), tunicates, fish and their eggs, crustaceans, and arthropods (crabs, lobsters, barnacles, copepods, and beetles).

In addition, hawksbills choose sponge species with significant numbers of siliceous spicules, such as Ancorina, Geodia (G. gibberosa[8]), Ecionemia, and Placospongia.

This phase appears to vary across ocean regions and may occur in both pelagic and nearshore waters, possibly lasting from 0–4 years of age.

They clear an area of debris and dig a nesting hole using their rear flippers, then lay clutches of eggs and cover them with sand.

While they emerge under the cover of darkness, hatchlings that do not reach the water by daybreak are preyed upon by shorebirds, shore crabs, and other predators.

[51] Because of their tough carapaces, adults' only predators are humans, sharks, estuarine crocodiles, octopuses, and some pelagic fish[51] species.

[59] Along the south coast of Java, stuffed hawksbill turtles are sold in souvenir shops, though numbers have decreased in the last two decades.

Bekko is used in various personal implements, such as eyeglass frames and the shamisen (Japanese traditional three-stringed instrument) picks.

[65] Consensus has determined sea turtles, including E. imbricata to be at least threatened, because of their slow growth and maturity and low reproductive rates.

[10] In the US Virgin Islands, mongooses raid hawksbill nests (along with other sea turtles, such as Dermochelys coriacea) right after they are laid.

These petitions were rejected based on their data analysis submitted by the Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG).

[73] The Zoological Society of London has inscribed the reptile as an EDGE species, meaning that it is both endangered and highly genetically distinct, and therefore of particular concern for conservation efforts.