Loggerhead Population Health Assessment

Blood sample collection from a juvenile loggerhead turtle
(Caretta caretta)
Photo Credit: SEFSC Beaufort Lab

Another aspect of our sea turtle population assessment involves partnering with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine to measure physiological variables that allow us to develop baseline health indices and also to characterize temporal trends in health status.

Baseline health data are significant in that they can facilitate:

determining if epizootics or health issues are involved in mass stranding events
assessing changes in health status that may occur in response to environmental pressures
setting criteria to classify condition and disease states
evaluating rehabilitated turtle condition to determine effectiveness of rehabilitation procedures and define release criteria

Juvenile loggerhead turtle with heavy barnacle load
(Caretta caretta)
Photo Credit: SEFSC Beaufort Lab loggerhead turtle with Inconel flipper tag

loggerhead turtle with Inconel flipper tag

Inconel flipper tag applied to left rear flipper of
juvenile loggerhead sea turtle
Caption: SEFSC Beaufort Lab

PIT tag injection on sea turtle

Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag injection
Photo Credit: J. Strickland loggerhead sea turtle biopsy

Biopsy sampling rear flipper of
juvenile loggerhead sea turtle for
genetic and stable isotope analyses
Photo Credit: SEFSC Beaufort Lab

Loggerhead Population Health Assessment

Protected Resources

Fisheries Service