Florida: Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge

While only twenty miles in length, the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge is the most important nesting area for loggerheads in the western hemisphere. Twenty-five percent of all loggerhead nests in the United States occur along this stretch of beach found between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach, on the eastern coast of Florida. Densities of 1,000 nests per mile have been recorded for this 20 mile strip of land. The loggerheads nesting in Archie Carr are part of the South Florida Nesting Subpopulation, one of the five nesting subpopulations in the western North Atlantic. This subpopulation, while the largest, has declined almost 50% since 1998, a significant decrease in the nesting loggerheads in Florida.