Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Loggerheads sea turtles are named for their relatively large head, which support powerful jaw musculature and enables them to feed on hard-shelled prey. Loggerhead sea turtles are carnivores (only occasionally consuming plant material) and could live to 70-80 years or more. They are found worldwide primarily in subtropical and temperate ocean waters. 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). They generally prefer high energy, relatively narrow, steeply sloped, coarse-grained beaches for nesting.

Loggerhead turtles have large heads with powerful jaws. Their powerful jaws are designed to crush their prey. Juveniles and adults eat mostly bottom dwelling invertebrates such as whelks, other mollusks, horseshoe crabs, and sea urchins. 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. 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. 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. 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 near shore 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.

Loggerheads are the most abundant species of sea turtle found 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.

Did You Know?

The biggest threats facing loggerhead turtles are bycatch in fishing gear, loss and degradation of nesting habitat, vessel strikes, and entanglement in marine debris.

Loggerheads sea turtles have no interaction with their parents. Female sea turtles bury eggs on the beach that hatch 50-60 days later. But the hatchlings seem to be programmed with an astonishing "Survival To Do List."

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. Find out more...