Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta)

This is the most commonly encountered sea turtle in NC waters. They are distinctively orange-brown colored and are quite large (although not as large as Leatherbacks). Barnacles usually cover their shells as seen below. These turtles were seen on various Brian Patteson pelagic birding trips off of Cape Hatteras, NC.

	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 Doing the backstroke.
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 Courtship
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 While we saw tens of turtles today, this individual exhibited some very strange behavior as seen in the sequence of the next 6 photos.
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 It appeared to rear up out of the water a few times.
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 And, instead of diving, it charged the boat!
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 18 Feb 2012 Wanting to alleviate any stress to the turtle, we carefully maneuvered away from it.

	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 22 Feb 2014 Transporting a rehabbed Loggerhead into warm waters offshore
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Off Hatteras, NC 22 Feb 2014 Releasing a rehabbed Loggerhead into warm waters offshore

	Two Loggerhead Turtles apparently in courtship Off Cape Hatteras, NC 5 March 2006
	Two Loggerhead Turtles apparently in courtship Off Cape Hatteras, NC 5 March 2006
	Two Loggerhead Turtles apparently in courtship Off Cape Hatteras, NC 5 March 2006

Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta)
Off Hatteras, NC
18 Feb 2012


A different Loggerhead Turtle Off Cape Hatteras, NC 5 March 2006	Yet another Loggerhead Turtle Off Cape Hatteras, NC 5 March 2006

	Off Hatteras, NC 19 Feb 2005
	Off Hatteras, NC 19 Feb 2005

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Created on ... July 18, 2005 | jeffpippen9@gmail.com