Sea Turtle Nesting Lowest in Nearly 20 Years

Loggerheads in Trouble

Loggerhead sea turtles -- threatened by commercial fishing, global warming and coastal development and disturbance -- are on the decline.

Help ensure that more adults return home to nest and hatchlings make it out to sea where they belong.

Fast Fact: To nest, female loggerheads return to the beach where they hatched.

In Florida, loggerhead sea turtles are nesting at the lowest rate since 1989, putting these already-threatened marine travelers at even greater risk of extinction.

Urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list Western North Atlantic loggerheads as endangered and designate critical habitat to ensure that more adults return home to nest and hatchlings make it out to sea where they belong.

We only have until Monday (May 5th) to submit comments, so please take action now.

It takes approximately 30 years for loggerheads to reach maturity and begin nesting. To nest and lay their eggs, these sea turtles make an epic journey from the Western part of the North Atlantic, all the way home to the southeastern coast of the U.S. and Mexico.

Each year, tens of thousands of loggerhead sea turtles -- many on their trip south to nest -- are killed by indiscriminate fishing gear, such as longlines, gillnets, and trawls. But even those loggerheads that make it home to their nesting beaches in Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia are far from safe.

Habitat loss and disturbance from coastal development, rising sea levels from global warming and other factors threaten sea turtle mothers, eggs, hatchlings and, ultimately, the entire Western North Atlantic population of loggerhead sea turtles.

Help save these turtles. Send a message to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now.

Loggerhead sea turtles are already listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but there is growing cause for concern for the future of the species.

A five-year status update required under the Endangered Species Act reported declining loggerhead populations -- a trend that is likely to worsen unless the effects of coastal development and disturbance, global warming, commercial fishing and other threats to loggerheads are addressed soon.

This year’s loggerhead nesting season is already underway. Please take action today to help protect these amazing sea turtles.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Fleming Florida Representative Defenders of Wildlife