Loggerhead sea turtles are in a "dire state,” with a 40 percent decline in the number of nests counted over the past decade, experts say.
Florida, home to 90 percent of loggerhead nests in the U.S., saw the fourth-worst nesting season on record in 2009, when the number dropped 15 percent, according to the environmental group Oceana.
Scientists at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, who count turtle nests every year on the city’s s beaches, can attest to the plunge: Two of the past three years yielded record low counts.
"We’re finally getting below 400 nests, which is scary,” said Kirt Rusenko, a marine conservationist at the center. "When I first started here 14 years ago, our nest number was more like 900.”