The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed yesterday that loggerhead sea turtles be considered an endangered species throughout much of the world, including the North Pacific and Northwest Atlantic oceans.
In the Northwest Atlantic, the turtles have seen a nesting decline of 40 percent in the past decade. In the North Pacific, populations are down about 80 percent, and specialists fear that the turtles are on the brink of extinction. Scientists first petitioned the government in 2007 to change the turtles’ “threatened’’ status to “endangered.’’
“It is a very big day for loggerhead sea turtles,’’ said marine scientist Elizabeth Griffin of Oceana, an environmental advocacy group based in Washington. “I hope this is a turning point and that people start taking loggerhead sea turtle conservation more seriously.’’