NMFS Biological Opinion on U.S. Navy training ... - Govsupport.us

FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013
3.3.8 Loggerhead Sea Turtle
Distribution
Loggerheads are circumglobal, inhabiting continental shelves, bays, estuaries, and lagoons in temperate, subtropical,
and tropical waters. Major nesting grounds are generally located in temperate and subtropical regions, with scattered
nesting in the tropics (in <strong>NMFS</strong> and USFWS 1998).
Population Structure
Loggerhead sea turtles, like other sea turtles, are divided into regional groupings that represent major oceans or seas:
the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea. In these regions, the
population structure of loggerhead turtles are usually based on the distribution of their nesting aggregations (see
Table 5). In the Pacific Ocean, loggerhead turtles are represented by a northwestern Pacific nesting aggregation
(located in Japan) which may be comprised of separate nesting groups (Hatase et al. 2002) and a smaller
southwestern nesting aggregation that occurs in Australia (Great Barrier Reef and Queensland), New Caledonia,
New Zealand, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. One of the largest loggerhead nesting aggregations in the world is
found in Oman, in the Indian Ocean.
Based on genetic analyses of loggerhead sea turtles captured in pelagic longline fisheries in the same general area as
that of the proposed action, loogerhead sea turtles along the southeastern coast of the United States might originate
from one of the five major nesting aggregations in the western North Atlantic: (1) a northern nesting aggregation that
occurs from North Carolina to northeast Florida, about 29 ° N; (2) a south Florida nesting aggregation, occurring from
29 ° N on the east coast to Sarasota on the west coast; (3) a Florida panhandle nesting aggregation, occurring at Eglin
Air Force Base and the beaches near Panama City, Florida; (4) a Yucatán nesting aggregation, occurring on the
eastern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico; and (5) a Dry Tortugas nesting aggregation that occurs in the islands of the Dry
Tortugas near Key West, Florida (<strong>NMFS</strong> 2001).
Loggerhead sea turtles from the northern nesting aggregation, which represents about 9% of the loggerhead nests in
the western North Atlantic, comprise more between 25 and 59% of the loggerhead sea turtles captured in foraging
areas from Georgia to waters of the northeastern United States (Bass et al. 1998, Norrgard 1995, Rankin-Baransky
1997, Sears 1994, Sears et al. 1995). About 10% of the loggerhead sea turtles in foraging areas off the Atlantic coast
of central Florida will have originated from the northern nesting aggregation (Witzell 1999). Loggerhead sea turtles
associated with the South Florida nesting aggregation, in contrast, occur in higher frequencies in the Gulf of Mexico
(where they represent about 10% of the loggerhead sea turtles captured) and the Mediterranean Sea (where they
represent about 45-47% of the loggerhead sea turtles captured).
Threats to the Species
NATURAL THREATS. The various habitat types loggerhead sea turtles occupy throughout their lives exposes these sea
turtles to a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic threats. The beaches on which loggerhead sea turtles nest and
the nests themselves are threatened by hurricanes and tropical storms as well as the storm surges, sand accretion, and
rainfall that are associated with hurricanes. For example, in 1992, all of the eggs over a 90-mile length of coastal
Florida were destroyed by storm surges on beaches that were closest to the eye of Hurricane Andrew (Milton et al.
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