Species profile
Caretta caretta
Loggerhead sea turtle
VU · Vulnerable — Vulnerable — high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Vulnerable. Loggerhead turtles have jaws strong enough to crush crabs, conchs and sea urchins — a diet almost no other sea turtle can handle. The overall trend remains uncertain or is not applicable, so it should not be inferred from a small number of observations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine, coastal. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Hatchlings from Japanese beaches cross the entire Pacific, drifting for years in floating seaweed rafts before returning to nest where they hatched. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
A loggerhead's first years are called the lost years: the young disappear into the open ocean and were almost never seen until satellite tags followed them. The catalogue records 3 principal pressures for this profile: Bycatch, Coastal development, Light pollution. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Fishery management needs enforceable limits, more selective gear, bycatch reduction and coordinated compliance across jurisdictions. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Stories connected to this species
Editorial context connecting this profile to climate, habitat and human activity.