In the absence of enforcement of local and national urban planning in Zakynthos Bay, small-scale illegal buildings, walls, and roads have increasingly encroached on Zakynthos’ once-pristine nesting beach of Daphni.

On the day that the the act was introduced to the U.S. Senate, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma surprised lawmakers and the conservation community alike when he provided a primer on sea turtle biology and regaled the packed hearing room with tales of a young man who had worked on a sea turtle nesting beach in Texas.

“There are 300 rioters outside, demanding to see you. They’re threatening to burn down the office.” It was eight o’clock in the morning in my home village in Bali, and this was not something I had expected to hear on the other end of the line.

Among the Middle East’s many fascinating inhabitants are the thousands of sea turtles that roam the region’s waters, feeding on a plethora of marine delicacies and arriving each year, with unfailing regularity, to nest on the region’s shores.

Loggerheads have long been exploited in Brazil. Before 1980, nearly all loggerhead eggs laid along the Brazilian coast were poached, and most nesting females were taken for meat. This situation has vastly improved since the implementation of Projeto TAMAR-IBAMA, the Brazilian National Sea Turtle Conservation Program.

One of the greatest challenges that conservationists face in preventing extinctions: insufficient data. Scientists the world over are working to meet this challenge in their research efforts. The SWOT Team with its global perspective is identifying, collecting, and presenting sea turtle data from around the world—an effort that will ultimately enable the conservation community to take collective actions when sea turtle populations decline and to focus resources on the highest priorities.

What makes a loggerhead turtle a loggerhead turtle? Over the years, “loggerhead” has meant many different things. At one time, the term “loggerhead” included the Ridley turtles. More recently, it encompassed two different subspecies (Caretta caretta caretta and Caretta caretta gigas).

The small Mexican fishing community of Puerto Lopez Mateos has a big influence on loggerhead sea turtle conservation. Facing a massive bycatch problem in their halibut and shark fisheries, fishermen are partnering with researchers to better understand sea turtles and to avoid turtle bycatch.

Japan, the sole breeding area for loggerhead turtles in the North Pacific, was recently ranked by a prominent researcher as the country most detrimental to sea turtle conservation. It also has one of the longest histories of nesting beach conservation and research in the world.

For generations, sea turtle biologists in the southeastern United States have watched loggerhead hatchlings emerge from their nests and enter the ocean. They are not seen again along those coasts until they reach approximately 50 centimeters (19.69 inches) in length. Archie Carr referred to that interim period as the “lost year,” and for years, we asked the question, “Where do those little loggerheads go?”