![]() ![]() Average estimates range from 9 to 20 years of age. However, there is uncertainty about the age at which they reach sexual maturity. Leatherback turtles grow faster than hard-shelled turtles. World map providing approximate representation of the leatherback turtle's range. Eastern Pacific leatherbacks, on the other hand, nest along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Costa Rica, and forage in the south-central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Western Pacific leatherbacks feed off the Pacific coast of North America, and migrate across the Pacific to nest in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Leatherbacks have been satellite tagged at sea on foraging grounds off Nova Scotia, Canada and tracked to nesting beaches in the Caribbean. Within the United States, the majority of nesting occurs in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. waters in the Northwest Atlantic, West Pacific, and East Pacific. Globally, the largest remaining nesting aggregations are found in Trinidad and Tobago, West-Indies (Northwest Atlantic) and Gabon, Africa (Southeast Atlantic). Nesting beaches are primarily located in tropical latitudes around the world. Leatherbacks occur in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The 2020 Status Review of the leatherback sea turtle under the ESA provides additional information on abundance and population trends. Large but potentially declining nesting populations also occur in the eastern Atlantic, along the west African coastline, but uncertainty in the data limits our understanding of the trends at many of those nesting beaches. In the Northwest Atlantic, leatherback nesting was increasing however, there have been significant decreases in recent years at numerous locations, including on the Atlantic coast of Florida, which is one of the main nesting areas in the continental United States. In the Western Pacific, the largest remaining nesting population, which accounts for 75 percent of the Western Pacific population, occurs in Papua Barat, Indonesia and has also declined by over 80 percent. Over the last three generations, nesting in this region has declined by over 90 percent. Primary nesting habitats of the Eastern Pacific leatherback turtle population are in Mexico and Costa Rica, with some isolated nesting in Panama and Nicaragua. The Pacific leatherback turtle populations are most at-risk for extinction as evidenced by ongoing precipitous declines in nesting through their range. Leatherback nesting in Malaysia has essentially disappeared, declining from about 10,000 nests in 1953 to only one or two nests per year since 2003. It is estimated that the global population has declined 40 percent over the past three generations. ![]() The leatherback sea turtle is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. We engage our partners as we develop regulations and recovery plans that foster the conservation and recovery of leatherbacks and their habitats, and we fund research, monitoring, and conservation projects to implement priorities outlined in recovery plans. We use a variety of innovative techniques to study, protect, and recover this endangered species. NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to conserving and recovering leatherback turtle populations worldwide. Through this initiative, NOAA Fisheries has made it a priority to focus recovery efforts on stabilizing and recovering Pacific leatherback populations in order to prevent their extinction. Pacific leatherbacks are one of nine ESA-listed species identified in NOAA’s Species in the Spotlight initiative. The Pacific leatherback turtle populations are most at-risk of extinction. The greatest of these threats worldwide are incidental capture in fishing gear (bycatch), hunting of turtles, and collection of eggs for human consumption. They face threats on both nesting beaches and in the marine environment. Once prevalent in every ocean except the Arctic and Antarctic, the leatherback population is rapidly declining in many parts of the world. The leatherback turtle has the widest global distribution of any reptile, with nesting mainly on tropical or subtropical beaches. They are also accomplished divers with the deepest recorded dive reaching nearly 4,000 feet-deeper than most marine mammals. Leatherbacks are highly migratory, some swimming over 10,000 miles a year between nesting and foraging grounds. They are named for their tough rubbery skin and have existed in their current form since the age of the dinosaurs. They are the only species of sea turtle that lack scales and a hard shell. The leatherback sea turtle is the largest turtle in the world. ![]()
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