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.
Dónde y cuándo ver uno
"Residente" significa que la mayoría de las inmersiones en ese destino tienen encuentros con ellos; "estacional" significa que su presencia es fiable en los meses indicados; cualquier otra cosa es un extra, no algo con lo que contar.
| Destino | Fiabilidad | Meses | Notas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida KeysUnited States | Resident — seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| Sodwana BaySouth Africa | Seasonal — reliable in season | Nov–Feb | |
| Malta & GozoMalta | Occasional | Todo el año | |
| North Carolina Outer BanksUnited States | Occasional | May–Sep |
El mejor mes, de un vistazo
| Mes | Destinos fiables |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Comprendiéndolos
Hábitat: Hard bottoms, wrecks, ledges, and open shelf waters; less reef-bound than greens or hawksbills
Rango: Temperate and subtropical oceans worldwide — the US Atlantic coast, Mediterranean, southern Africa, Oman, Japan, and eastern Australia hold major nesting populations
Comportamiento: 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.
Dieta: Hard-shelled prey — conch, whelks, crabs, and urchins — crushed with massive jaw muscles housed in the oversized head
Tamaño: normalmente alrededor de 0.9 m; documentado hasta 1.1 m (carapace length; a heavily built turtle commonly well over 100 kg).
Cómo comportarse cerca de uno
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.
Conservación
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.
Puntos conocidos por avistamientos
Ver
Desde los canales oficiales
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