LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE

Loggerhead sea turtle

Selina Heppell

Latin name: Caretta caretta

Loggerhead sea turtles in the U.S. suffered major declines in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of unintentional catch and drowning in fishing nets, beach habitat degradation, and other factors. Dr. Selina Heppell worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service on assessments and recovery plans for U.S. populations. She has also worked with researchers in the Mediterranean on loggerhead turtles that nest in Greece and Cyprus. The species is now recovering.

Did you know? Loggerhead turtles reach maturity between 25 and 35 years of age, making analysis of their response to human impacts and populations quite difficult.

Publications:

Snover, M.L. and S.S. Heppell. 2009. Application of diffusion approximation for risk assessments of sea turtle populations. Ecological Applications 19(3): 774–785.

Wallace, B. P., S. S. Heppell, R. L. Lewison, S. Kelez, and L. B. Crowder. 2008. Reproductive values of loggerhead turtles in fisheries bycatch worldwide. Journal of Applied Ecology 45:1076-1085.

Crowder, L. B. , D. T. Crouse, S. S. Heppell, and T. H. Martin. 1994. Predicting the impact of turtle excluder devices on loggerhead sea turtle populations. Ecological Applications 4(3): 437-445.

Heppell, S.S. 2005. Development of alternative quantitative tools to assist in jeopardy evaluation for sea turtles. Report for the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 35 pp. http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/PDFdocs/CR_Heppell_2005_Quantitative_Tools.pdf

Heppell, S. 2004. Development of a two-sex, population-specific model for Atlantic loggerheads. Report to NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 22pp. http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/PDFdocs/CR_Heppell_2004.pdf