Loggerhead sea turtle is no longer a single endangered species because the protection method has been modified. The authority has now considered this single threatened species as grouped in nine population segments, five of which are listed as endangered. Federal agencies have changed the designation of loggerhead sea turtles from a single threatened species to nine distinct population segments; five are listed as endangered and four are listed as threatened.
According to NOAA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the change will help scientists tailor conservation efforts of the species. The modified version of protection will deal with threats faced by genetically distinct groups of the species in regions around the world. In March, the agencies proposed listing seven populations as endangered.
Jim Lecky, NOAA fisheries director of protected resources, said that the proposal was ready earlier this year to list the Northwest Atlantic population as endangered was questioned by a group of 15 federal lawmakers with oversight of NOAA. Sandy MacPherson, national sea turtle coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that the trend in nesting female [Northwest Atlantic Ocean] loggerhead sea turtles is relatively flat; their decline is not a precipitous one.
Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, disagreed saying that the failure to recognize that Northwest Atlantic loggerheads are endangered ignores the massive impacts of the BP oil spill and increased threats from shrimp-trawler fisheries on this imperiled population. Loggerhead turtles have continued to decline since the species was listed as threatened in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act. This listing is a wake-up call that a whole host of threats continue to kill off turtles faster than the animals can possibly hope to reproduce.
