About The Species
Loggerheads are the most abundant species of sea turtle found in U.S. Atlantic coastal waters. The species is named for its relatively large head, which support powerful jaw musculature and enables them to feed on hard-shelled prey, such as whelks and conch.
All loggerhead turtle populations are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The biggest threats facing loggerhead turtles are bycatch in fishing gear, loss and degradation of nesting habitat, vessel strikes, and entanglement in marine debris.
NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to conserving and rebuilding turtle populations worldwide. We use a variety of innovative techniques to study, protect, and recover these threatened and endangered animals. We engage our partners as we develop regulations and recovery plans that foster the conservation and recovery of loggerheads and their habitats.
Status
Loggerheads are found worldwide primarily in subtropical and temperate ocean waters. Nine Distinct Population Segments of loggerhead sea turtles are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The most recent reviews show that only two loggerhead nesting beaches have greater than 10,000 females nesting per year: South Florida and Oman. The status of the Oman nesting colony has not been evaluated recently.
The loggerhead is the most common sea turtle in the southeastern U.S. They nest primarily along the Atlantic coast of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina and along the Florida and Alabama coasts in the Gulf of Mexico. Total estimated nesting in the U.S. is approximately 68,000 to 90,000 nests per year.
The Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa support a medium-sized loggerhead nesting assemblage. In 2000, researchers tagged over 1,000 nesting females on just 3.1 miles of beach on Boa Vista Island (an island in Cape Verde). Brazil also supports a medium-sized loggerhead nesting assemblage. There are about 4,000 nests per year in Brazil. Loggerhead nesting throughout the Caribbean is sparse.
In the Mediterranean, loggerhead nesting is confined almost exclusively to the eastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea. The main nesting assemblages occur in Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. However, small numbers of loggerhead nests have been recorded in Egypt, Israel, Italy, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia. Based on the recorded number of nests per year in Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Tunisia, and Turkey, loggerhead nesting in the Mediterranean ranges from about 3,300 to 7,000 nests per season.
Loggerheads nest throughout the Indian Ocean and, with the exception of Oman, the number of nesting females is small. Oman hosts the second largest nesting assemblage of loggerheads in the world, recent trends analyses indicate this important nesting population is declining.
Loggerhead populations in Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Israel, Turkey, Bahamas, Cuba, Greece, Japan, and Panama have been declining. This decline continues and is primarily attributed to bycatch in fishing gear, direct harvest, coastal development, increased human use of nesting beaches, and pollution.
In the Pacific, there are two distinct population segments (DPS) of loggerheads. The North Pacific Loggerhead Turtle DPS nests only on the coasts of Japan. This population has declined 50 to 90 percent during the last 60 years, however the overall nesting trend in Japan has been stable or increasing over the last decade. The South Pacific loggerhead turtle DPS nests primarily in Australia with some nesting in New Caledonia. In 1977 about 3,500 females may have nested in the South Pacific —today there are only around 500 per year.
The 2009 status review of the loggerhead sea turtle provides additional population information for each distinct population segment.
Protected Status
ESA Endangered
1 distinct population segment
ESA Endangered - Foreign
4 distinct population segments
- Mediterranean Sea DPS
- Northeast Atlantic Ocean DPS
- North Indian Ocean DPS
- South Pacific Ocean DPS
ESA Threatened
1 distinct population segment
- Northwest Atlantic Ocean DPS
ESA Threatened - Foreign
3 distinct population segments
- South Atlantic Ocean DPS
- Southeast Indo-Pacific Ocean DPS
- Southwest Indian Ocean DPS
Appearance
Loggerhead turtles have large heads with powerful jaws. The top shell (carapace) is slightly heart-shaped and reddish-brown in adults and sub-adults, while the bottom shell (plastron) is generally a pale yellowish color. The neck and flippers are usually dull brown to reddish brown on top and medium to pale yellow on the sides and bottom. Hatchlings are dark in color but lack the reddish-brown coloration of adults and juveniles. Their flippers are dark gray to brown above with white to white-gray margins. The coloration of the bottom shell is generally yellowish to tan.
Behavior and Diet
Loggerheads generally prefer high energy, relatively narrow, steeply sloped, coarse-grained beaches for nesting.
Immediately after hatchlings emerge from the nest, they begin a period of high activity and continue swimming away from land for up to several days. Post-hatchling loggerheads take up residence in areas where surface waters converge to form local downwellings. These areas are often characterized by accumulations of floating material, such as algae/seaweed. Post-hatchlings within this habitat are low-energy float-and-wait foragers that feed on a wide variety of floating items, which unfortunately includes plastic.
Once individuals get transported by ocean currents farther offshore, they have entered the oceanic zone. Loggerheads spend the first 7 to 15 years (average 12 years) of their lives in the open ocean and then migrate to nearshore coastal areas. In addition to providing critically important habitat for juveniles, the coastal areas also provide foraging habitat, inter-nesting habitat, and migratory habitat for adult loggerheads.
The main foraging areas for western North Atlantic adult loggerheads are found throughout the relatively shallow continental shelf waters of the United States, Bahamas, Cuba, and the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Migration routes from foraging habitats to nesting beaches (and vice versa) for a portion of the population are restricted to the continental shelf, while other routes involve crossing oceanic waters to and from the Bahamas, Cuba, and the Yucatán Peninsula. Seasonal migrations of adult loggerheads along the mid- and southeast U.S. coasts have also been documented.
Through satellite tracking, researchers have discovered that loggerheads in the Pacific have a highly migratory life stage. Hatchlings enter the ocean and undertake a trans-Pacific developmental migration from nesting beaches in Japan and Australia across the Pacific to feeding grounds off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, Peru and Chile—nearly 8,000 miles! They spend many years (possibly up to 20 years) growing to maturity and then migrate back to their natal beaches (where they originally hatched) in the Western Pacific ocean to mate and nest and live out the remainder of their lives.
Loggerheads are carnivores, only occasionally consuming plant material. In the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico hatchlings feed on small animals living in floating seaweed called Sargassum, where they spend their early developmental years. Juveniles and adults eat mostly bottom dwelling invertebrates such as whelks, other mollusks, horseshoe crabs, and sea urchins. Their powerful jaws are designed to crush their prey.
Where They Live
Loggerheads are found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Nine Distinct Population Segments of loggerhead sea turtles are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
In the Atlantic, the loggerhead turtle's range extends from Newfoundland to as far south as Argentina. They are the most abundant species of sea turtle found in U.S. coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean. During the summer, nesting occurs primarily in the subtropics. Although the major nesting concentrations in the U.S. are found from North Carolina through southwest Florida, minimal nesting occurs outside of this range westward to Texas and northward to Virginia. Adult loggerheads make extensive migrations between foraging areas and nesting beaches. During non-nesting years, adult females from U.S. beaches are distributed in waters off the eastern United States and throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
The majority of loggerhead nesting occurs in the western rims of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The loggerhead nesting aggregations in Oman, the United States, and Australia account for about 88 percent of nesting worldwide.
In the southeastern United States, about 80 percent of loggerhead nesting occurs in six Florida counties—Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward. Within those counties a 20 mile section of coastline from Melbourne Beach to Wabasso Beach comprises the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, which is the most important nesting area for loggerhead turtles in the western hemisphere. Twenty-five percent of all loggerhead nesting in the United States occurs in the refuge - 1,000 loggerhead nests per mile have been documented in some parts of the refuge.
In the eastern Pacific, loggerheads have been reported in waters as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Chile. In the United States, occasional sightings are reported from the coasts of Washington and Oregon, but most records are of juveniles off the coast of California. The west coast of Mexico, including the Baja Peninsula, provides critically important developmental habitats for North Pacific juvenile loggerheads which nest only in Japan. The South Pacific loggerhead turtle nests only in Australia and New Caledonia, and juveniles can be found foraging off the coast of Peru and Chile.
World map providing approximate representation of the loggerhead turtle's range.
Lifespan & Reproduction
Loggerhead sea turtles are long-lived and could live to 70-80 years or more. Female loggerheads reach maturity at about 35 years of age. Every 2 to 3 years they mate in coastal waters and then return to nest on their natal beach (where they hatched).
In the northern hemisphere mating occurs in late March to early June and females lay eggs between late April and early September. Females lay three to five nests, sometimes more, during a single nesting season. The eggs incubate approximately two months and hatch between late June and mid-November.
Threats
Bycatch in Fishing Gear
The greatest cause of decline and the continuing primary threat to loggerhead turtle populations worldwide is bycatch in fishing gear, primarily in trawls, longlines, and gillnets, but also in pound nets, traps and pots, and dredge fisheries.
Intentional Killing of Turtles
Sea turtles have been killed for their meat and skin for hundreds of years. Loggerheads are fully protected in many places where they occur throughout the world, but they are still killed for their meat in some places and this remain a serious and continuing threat to their recovery.
Ocean Pollution/Marine Debris
Sea turtles can become entangled in marine debris such as discarded fishing line or nets and discarded plastics and rope, and can be killed or seriously injured. They also ingest fishing line, balloons, plastic bags, plastic pieces, or other plastic debris which they can mistake for food; this can lead to serious injury and death.
Scientific Classification
| Animalia |
Chordata |
Reptilia |
Testudines |
Cheloniidae |
Caretta |
caretta |
