Pilot study of Loggerhead Turtles in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area: Movements and community based conservation
Final Report to the Department of the Environment and Heritage
A collaborative project involving the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM), Shark Bay Yadgalah Aboriginal Corporation (Inc.), Shark Bay School, Simon Fraser University, and Florida International University
About this document
Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are important components of marine ecosystems, where they act both as invertebrate predators and prey for large sharks (Bjorndal 2003). Loggerheads are characterized by a circumglobal distribution, which includes continental shelves, bays, estuaries, and lagoons in temperate, subtropical, and tropical waters (Bjorndal 2003). However, throughout much of their range, these turtles are in decline; indeed, the loggerhead turtle is listed (i) internationally by the IUCN as “Endangered”, (ii) nationally in Australia under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as “Endangered”, and (iii) in Western Australia under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 as “rare and likely to become extinct”.