Leatherbacks, because of their extensive migrations and specialized food requirements, are often seen in loose groups, usually well offshore. Sometimes more than a dozen may be observed in a small area. Depending on whether they are feeding on surface-floating jellyfish or those found at great depths, leatherback sightings may be frequent or rare. In short, accurate population counts are difficult, but summer migration numbers along the northeastern coast are estimated to be in the low thousands. Such numbers are probably present at times off the southeastern coasts as well, and also in the Gulf of Mexico. Several hundred leatherbacks regularly...

Loggerheads are the most abundant sea turtles along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States south of Cape Cod. When the species was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1978, genetically distinct subpopulations were unknown. dna studies have now identified at least three Atlantic and Gulf nesting subpopulations whose status must be individually assessed. The northern subpopulation nests from North Carolina south to northeastern Florida and shows a continual slow decline in numbers. The south Florida subpopulation nests from New Smyrna Beach on the east coast around to Sarasota on the west coast; it is the largest...

Kemp’s ridley is the most endangered of all the sea turtle species. A few thousand adult females nest in a single locality in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and a very few nest in other scattered locations, such as Padre Island, Texas. Juveniles are frequently encountered along the Gulf and East coasts, but observations of adults outside the Gulf of Mexico are relatively rare. Old films and interviews with witnesses indicate that in 1947 up to forty thousand females nested on the 60-km-long beach at Tamaulipas in a single day. By 1968, the largest single nesting group during a season had declined to...

The olive ridley is a tropical species found in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. Major nesting areas occur near low-salinity waters around the mouths of rivers and estuaries. In the western North Atlantic Ocean, the species had been limited to the northern coast of South America, with a few individuals reported from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, until 2003, when the first records of olive ridleys in Florida were documented. This species is the most common nester on the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America, and it is thought to be the most numerous of the...

The worldwide abundance of green turtles is unknown, but populations are declining in all ocean basins. Several nesting populations have been lost altogether, and there is no indication that the beaches are being recolonized. Nesting numbers and the number of juveniles in inshore waters indicate that the Florida nesting population is stable or increasing, however, with hundreds to thousands nesting annually.

Green turtles, mainly a warm-water species, are found in all oceans and have major nesting areas throughout the world. The greatest numbers occur in association with specific foraging and nesting areas such as northeastern Costa Rica, the eastern coast...

Hawksbills are not abundant in U.S. waters. Most populations are considered to be declining, but relatively large nesting populations still occur in Yemen, northeastern Australia, the Red Sea, and Oman.

Coral reefs, rocky outcrops and rubble piles, and shallow seas throughout the tropics are typical habitats for this widely distributed species. Major nesting beaches are in northern Australia, the Fiji Islands, East Malaysia, many groups of islands in the Indian Ocean and along the coasts of the Arabian and Red seas, southwest Brazil, Surinam, French Guiana, Guyana, along the Yucatán Peninsula, and islands in the Caribbean.

Specimens have been encountered...