Loggerhead sea Turtle

Loggerhead sea Turtle

 

 

Common Name: Loggerhead sea Turtle

Scientific Name: Caretta caretta

Taxonomy Comments
This species is also known as Atlantic loggerhead, Pacific loggerhead, cabezon, caguama, grosskopf, and caouane *8817,10815*. Linnaeus described this species as Testudo caretta in 1758 from literature citations about the American islands. Linnaeus designated no type specimen. Then Smith and Taylor established the type locality as the Bermuda Islands in 1950 and Schmidt narrowed it to Bimini, British Bahamas. It was called Caretta nasuta by Rafinesque in 1814, therefore being the first one to put it in the genus. It got its final and correct taxonomy of C. caretta from Stejneger in 1904 *10760*.

Status Comments
This species is threatened by habitat loss, human overuse, disease and predation. The meat and eggs are eaten by humans. They have been used commercially for meat, jewelry and the curio trade although the primary use continues to be the egg harvest. A Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles was approved in 1984. The effort is to maintain populations at current levels by reducing limiting factors until a stable or upward trend is established. Efforts include 1) mitigate factors affecting terrestrial mortality and/or stress, 2) assess and monitor population levels on beaches, 3) mitigate factors affecting marine mortality and/or stress, and 4) assess and monitor estuarine and marine population *8817*. The loggerhead was listed as threatened by the Federal Government in 1978, which was adopted by the VDGIF in 1987 *9286*. The research conducted by VIMS personnel is providing information about the life history of these turtles in Virginia. Strandings of dead turtles, nesting turtles, and observations of human interference should be reported to VIMS *10760*. Because of the importance of juvenile turtles to future recovery of the population, the status of the loggerhead should be changed from threatened to endangered in Virginia *10120*.