Loggerheads
April 18th, 2007
by Christine Mayo
Keep our Loggerheads safe! It is our obligation to share the beach with our sea turtles. Only 1 in 10,000 hatchlings will survive to adulthood. The loggerhead was listed in 1978 as a threatened species and it is considered “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Recent population studies have concluded that the number of females that nest in the U.S. is continuing to decline.
Some of the reasons why they continually decline are their loss or disturbance of nesting habitat from coastal development, beachfront lighting, nest predators, marine pollution and debris, boats, channel dredging and trawling, and fishing nets.
In nature, sea turtles face a host of life and death obstacles to their survival. So as humans, we must look at our actions.
Visit the Turtle Trails project at The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher where they are using satellite transmitters to follow the loggerheads’ release after rehabilitation. We all need to be diligent in our conservation to our sea turtles.
The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is located on US 421 approximately 15 miles south of Wilmington, just beyond Kure Beach.
