Turtles
Loggerhead Turtle
Caretta caretta · Marine reptile, family Cheloniidae
The loggerhead is the heavyweight journeyman of the turtle world: thick-necked, barrel-bodied, its outsized amber head built around jaws that crack conch like walnuts. Divers meet it in less glamorous places than its reef cousins: trudging across shell hash off Florida, wedged on a North Carolina wreck, cruising sandy gutters at Sodwana ahead of summer nesting. What it lacks in delicacy it repays in presence; a big female pushing past resembles slow-moving furniture and utterly ignores you. Its hatchlings ride ocean gyres for years (the 'lost years') before returning to coastal shallows, one of the great migration stories in the sea.
Where and when to see one
"Resident" means most dives at that destination encounter them; "seasonal" means reliably present in the listed months; anything else is a bonus, not a plan.
| Destination | Reliability | Months | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida KeysUnited States | Resident: seen on most dives | Year-round | |
| Sodwana BaySouth Africa | Seasonal: reliable in season | Nov–Feb | |
| Malta & GozoMalta | Occasional | Year-round | |
| North Carolina Outer BanksUnited States | Occasional | May–Sep |
Best month, at a glance
| Month | Reliable destinations |
|---|---|
| January | Florida Keys · Sodwana Bay · Malta & Gozo |
| February | Florida Keys · Sodwana Bay · Malta & Gozo |
| March | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo |
| April | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo |
| May | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo · North Carolina Outer Banks |
| June | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo · North Carolina Outer Banks |
| July | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo · North Carolina Outer Banks |
| August | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo · North Carolina Outer Banks |
| September | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo · North Carolina Outer Banks |
| October | Florida Keys · Malta & Gozo |
| November | Florida Keys · Sodwana Bay · Malta & Gozo |
| December | Florida Keys · Sodwana Bay · Malta & Gozo |
Understanding them
Habitat: Hard bottoms, wrecks, ledges, and open shelf waters; less reef-bound than greens or hawksbills
Range: Temperate and subtropical oceans worldwide: the US Atlantic coast, Mediterranean, southern Africa, Oman, Japan, and eastern Australia hold major nesting populations
Behavior: A powerful, big-headed cruiser often met plodding across open sand or hauled up on a wreck deck like a boulder with flippers. Less site-faithful underwater than reef turtles, it covers ocean basins between feeding and nesting grounds; barnacle-crusted shells testify to the mileage.
Diet: Hard-shelled prey (conch, whelks, crabs, and urchins) crushed with massive jaw muscles housed in the oversized head
Size: typically around 0.9 m; documented up to 1.1 m (carapace length; a heavily built turtle commonly well over 100 kg).
How to behave around one
Standard turtle rules: no touching or riding, clear path to the surface, and extra distance during nesting season near mating pairs, which are focused and easily stressed.
Conservation
Vulnerable; longline and trawl bycatch remains the central threat, answered in part by hook and excluder-device rules, while beach protection has stabilized several nesting populations.
Charted sites known for them
Highlighted sites were charted for this species by our editors; numbers are GBIF occurrence records logged within about 5 km of a site since 1990.
Watch
From the official channels
Wildlife of Monterey | New film in our auditorium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
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