Loggerhead sea turtles inhabit a remarkable range of Atlantic Ocean environments. Juveniles often spend years drifting within ocean currents across the open Atlantic, while adults typically favor coastal waters, bays, estuaries, continental shelf habitats, and productive feeding grounds rich in shellfish and crustaceans.

In the western Atlantic, loggerheads can be found from the waters off New England and Atlantic Canada south through the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast United States, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and along the coast of South America. Some of the world’s most important nesting beaches occur in Florida, which supports one of the largest loggerhead nesting populations on Earth.

Across the eastern Atlantic, populations occur near Portugal, the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and the western coast of Africa. Ocean currents play a major role in shaping their distribution, carrying young turtles thousands of miles during the earliest years of life.