The Loggerhead sea turtle has experienced an aggressive decline in the past decade -- with an 80 percent decrease in the North Pacific and a 40 percent decline in the Northwest Atlantic, their most popular nesting spot¹.

These turtles face many threats beyond the natural dangers of ocean life. When beaches are disrupted by the removal of vegetation and/or addition of lights, nesting females and their hatchlings struggle to return to the sea².

Thousands of sea turtles are injured or killed each year as a result of commercial fishing activity in U.S. and international waters. Many of these injuries and deaths take place while turtles are migrating through fishing areas³.

Illegal fishing practices not only pose the direct threat to sea turtles of being harpooned or caught in nets, they also corrupt sea turtle habitats and nesting areas by polluting them with discarded plastic, nets, ropes and chemicals⁴.

Loggerhead sea turtles are currently only one of six remaining sea turtle species left in the United States⁵. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed to change the status of the North Pacific and Northwest Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act⁶.

Listing the loggerhead as endangered will be a major step in guaranteeing further protection.

Help us support the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in changing the Loggerhead turtle from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act! Sign and save the Loggerhead Turtle!

More on this issue:

1. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration | U.S. Department Of Commerce (1 November 2022), "Loggerhead Turtle."
2. Sea Turtle Conservancy (2022), "Information About Sea Turtles: Threats from Beach Activities."
3. Milagros López-Mendilaharsu, Bruno B. Giffoni, Danielle Monteiro, Laura Prosdocimi, Gabriela Ma Velez-Rubio, Alejandro Fallabrino, Andrés Estrades, AS dos Santos, PH Lara, Thaís Pires, Manjula Tiwari, AB Bolten, MÂ Marcovaldi, Endangered Species Research (February 2020), "Multiple threats analysis for loggerhead sea turtles in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean."
4. Elizabeth Devitt, Mongabay (20 September 2021), "Sea turtles: Can these great marine migrators navigate rising human threats?."
5. National Geographic, "Loggerhead sea turtle."
6. Anna Baxter, Oceana (10 March 2010), "Endangered Status Proposed for U.S. Loggerhead Sea Turtles."