Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Caretta caretta

Loggerhead turtles are the most abundant of all the marine turtle species in U.S. waters. But persistent population declines due to pollution, shrimp trawling, and development in their nesting areas, among other factors, have kept this wide-ranging seagoer on the threatened species list since 1978. Their enormous range encompasses all but the most frigid waters of the world's oceans. They seem to prefer coastal habitats, but often frequent inland water bodies and will travel hundreds of miles out to sea. The largest of all hard-shelled turtlesleatherbacks are bigger but have soft shells loggerheads have massive heads, strong jaws, and a reddish-brown shell, or carapace. Adult males reach about three feet (nearly one meter) in shell length and weigh about 250 pounds (113 kilograms), but large specimens of more than 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) have been found. They are primarily carnivores, munching jellyfish, conchs, crabs, and even fish, but will eat seaweed and sargassum occasionally. Mature females will often return, sometimes over thousands of miles, to the beach where they hatched to lay their eggs. Worldwide population numbers are unknown, but scientists studying nesting populations are seeing marked decreases despite endangered species protections

Fast Facts
Type: Reptile Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: More than 50 years Size: 36 in (90 cm) Weight: 253 lbs (115 kg) Group name: Flotilla Protection status: Endangered Did you know? Sea turtles can move through the water at speeds of up to 15 mi (24 km) per hour. Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

Turtle excluder devices (TEDs) are tools originally developed by fishermen that benefit both thecommercial fishing industry and the marine environment. In the 1970s and 1980s, American shrimp fishermen invented various TEDs to reduce theirbycatch. The shrimp fishery uses large trawl nets that skim the seafloor. The nets' mesh is fine enough that shrimp are caught as the net drags along the bottom. Unfortunately, trawling can also net other bottom-dwelling creatures. Turtles, such as the loggerhead in this photograph, need air to breathe. They drown as the trawl nets prevent them from returning to the surface. Not only does this bycatch reduce the turtle population, it also reduces the economic value of the fishery. (Fewer shrimp are caught because turtles take up room in the net. The weight of the turtles can also crush the shrimp beneath them, damaging them and reducing the value of the catch even further.) TEDs have a fairly simple design: a grid of bars is attached to the top or bottom of a trawl net. (The bars are visible behind the mesh directly above the loggerhead in the photograph.) Small animals, such as shrimp, pass right through the bars and into a bag-like net. Animals that are too large to pass through the bars are ejected through an opening below them. TEDs not only benefit turtles, but also allow other large animals, such as sharks and rays, to escape.