Cornish Biodiversity Network - Supporting Wildlife Recording
The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Loggerheads are the most highly migratory species of marine turtle and can be found worldwide in both temperate and subtropical coastal waters, although nesting occurs in more temperate regions than for other sea turtle species (Marine Conservation Society, UK, 2008c). Juvenile or sub-adult Loggerheads occasionally occur in British waters and are thought to come from the American coast. Penhallurick (1990) suggests that a decrease in numbers between the 1950s and at least until the 1990s reflected a decrease in America where huge numbers were accidentally caught in shrimp nets and where their nesting grounds were diminishing as a result of development. Locally, threats come from the cold. It is only with human intervention that one or two occasionally survive to be flown back to the Caribbean region.
Strandings & Sightings
There have been 58 (possibly 59) records between 1896 and 2007: 1955 (approximately 2), 1984 (approximately 2), 1945 (3), 1995 (3), 1996 (2), 1997 (1), 1998 (3), 1999 (15), 2000 (11), 2001 (2), 2002 (9), 2003 (2), 2005 (1), 2007 (2).
Conservation
Listed globally as Endangered (Marine Turtle Specialist Group 1996. Caretta caretta . In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 05 March 2008). This is also an OSPAR priority species (OSPAR, 2004).
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.