Loggerhead sea turtle

Description:

This marine turtle is found around the world, with adults growing up to 270 cm (110 in) long. An average adult can weigh about 135 kg (300 lb); the largest turtles found have weighed more than 454 kg (1000 lb). With a reddish-brown carapace, females and males look similar until adulthood, when adult males have thicker tails and shorter plastrons than the females. They live from 47-67 years, reaching sexual maturity at about 17-33 years. Females lay four egg clutches on average and then become quiescent, producing no eggs for 2-3 years. The young are vulnerable to ghost crabs and other predators when they emerge from the nest.

Habitat:

They are an endangered species an endangered species protected by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Threats to their wellbeing include untended fishing gear, collisions with boat motors, ingested plastics, shark attacks and loss of nesting beaches. Water temperature affects their metabolic rate and the loggerhead takes on a floating, cold-stunned posture when temperatures drop to approximately 10 °C (50 °F). Their migration helps to prevent instances of cold-stunning. These turtles were seen at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island.

Notes:

Boater (first photo), a female of 10-15 years weighing 120 lbs, was admitted on 16 September 2007. She had been caught by a boat motor propeller which fractured her left flipper and sliced through her carapace, also cutting through major organs. Her carapace was knitted back together with surgical steel plates and wires. She also received doses of a medication that promotes cell growth that cost $750/dose. They hope she might be released in 2013. NC (for North Carolina; second photo with head not entirely showing), a 10-12 year-old turtle, was brought to the hospital in January 2012 as a cold-stunned turtle (temperature of 4°C). The water was slowly warmed to raise her body temperature and they hope to release her in spring 2013, even though she is missing her left front flipper, which was amputated; she has no tags, however. Oceans 11 (last photos) is a 20-year-old, 200 lb, loggerhead who came to the hospital covered in leeches in November 2009. She was caught in a net, had cuts on her flippers and 50% of her carapace was crushed. The left side of her carapace required surgery and the insertion of steel plates to hold it together; the last sutures came out in June 2011. They hope to release her in spring 2013.