Loggerhead Sea Turtles Making a Comeback

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Officials at the DNR say over the past 25 years the average number of nests was around 1,000.

The goal now is to get the federally threatened species up to 2,800 nests.

“If you would have asked me 10 years ago, ‘How likely are we to get to that number?’ I would have said, ‘Well, it’s going to be a long time and it’s not likely in the near future.  But now it feels like that goal is within reach,” says Mark Dodd, a senior wildlife biologist with the DNR.

Loggerheads are mainly in the Southeast region, and Dodd says commercial fishing and the loss of habitat were the two main threat to the species.

But those numbers are rebounding.

“Really, it’s been a large group effort and it’s pretty gratifying to finally see the benefit from all those years of hard work and conservation with the beginning of the recovery of loggerheads,” says Dodd.

State wildlife officials say loggerhead nests are found from Virginia to Texas.

In Georgia, the nesting season starts toward the end of May and runs through the middle of August.