subsistence hunting and food-gathering is generally unnecessary. 

 Nevertheless, the loggerhead is subject to other threats that may 

 be just as effective. In the United States, many of the best 

 nesting grounds are plagued by unnaturally high raccoon 

 populations, which are extraordinarily adept at raiding 

 loggerhead nests, or even stealing the eggs as the female lays 

 them. In addition, beachfront development, with associated 

 levels of artificial illumination and disturbance, is taking 

 place on many of the best nesting areas; and even if lights and 

 direct disturbance are controlled, the necessity of erecting 

 artificial structures, or conducting such operations as "beach 

 renourishment, " to combat natural (or unnatural) erosion may 

 disturb the nesting turtles or render the beach unusable by them. 



In the Atlantic waters of the United States, the loggerhead 

 is by far the most frequent victim of drowning in shrimp trawls 

 of all the sea turtle species; over 10,000 loggerheads are 

 estimated to be killed annually in this way in waters of the 

 United States alone. This massive loss, principally of 

 subadults, is negating the benefits of the numerous beach 

 protection efforts and hatcheries on southeastern U.S. beaches, 

 and is causing a slow but steady decline of the nesting 

 populations. This loss can be controlled very effectively by 

 utilization of a Turtle Excluder .Device (TED) by all trawlers 

 operating within known sea turtle habitat, but such devices are, 

 unfortunately, not yet in widespread use. (Editor's note: 

 Mandatory use of TED in U.S. Federal waters begins May, 1989.) 



The Hawksbill ( Eretmochelys imbricata) 



Morphology ; The hawksbill is a relatively small sea turtle 

 species, adults rarely exceeding a carapace length of 90 cm or a 

 weight of about 65 kg. This species has a distinctive carapace, 

 the individual scutes being uniquely thick and each overlaps its 

 neighbor to the rear, except in hatchlings or very old adults. 

 There are four pairs of costal scutes. The head is strikingly 

 narrow (except in the very young) , and the jaws extend forward 

 into a bird-like beak (although, despite the name "hawksbill," 

 this beak is not hooked, as in the bird of prey) . The prefrontal 

 scales, immediately above the nostrils, that form a single pair 

 of elongate elements in the green turtle, are subdivided into 

 four in the hawksbill. Dorsally, the hawksbill is typically 

 reddish-brown to black, usually with attractive irregular, 

 radiating, or flame-like unpigmented areas on the scutes of the 

 carapace. The larger head scales are reddish-brown to black 

 also, with light yellowish borders. The plastral scutes are 

 heavily pigmented (dark brown) in hatchlings, but lighten to 

 light yellow in adults. In some areas, especially in the Indian 

 and Pacific oceans, some plastral markings are black. 



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