leatherback sea turtle swimming at the top of the ocean

Sea Turtles

Species Type
Reptile

As the ocean temperature begins to rise in late spring and early summer, the waters of New York become suitable for sea turtles. During the warm summer months and stretching into fall, four of the seven existing species of sea turtles can be found here: Green, Kemp's Ridley, Leatherback, and Loggerhead sea turtles. They stay in New York from about May through November and are particularly fond of the warmer waters in Long Island’s bays and estuaries.

By the end of November in the Northeast U.S. region, sea turtles begin their migration south, following the warm water temperatures. If they remain in the area too long and are exposed to cold water (50 degrees F and below), they may become cold-stunned, a hypothermic condition that results in a lethargic state. You can read more about cold-stunning below.

Sea turtles are a fundamental element of the marine ecosystem and they are experiencing unique and far-reaching threats during all of their life stages. All species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and by the state of New York. All four species are also listed as High Priority Species of Greatest Conservation Need under the 2015 State Wildlife Action Program (SWAP). The 2025 SWAP maintains the High Priority designation of each species. 

Below, you can learn about each species we see locally, the major threats they face, and what scientists and managers are doing for their recovery.

Green Sea Turtle swimming in ocean
Image Credit
NOAA Fisheries

New York Status: Threatened

Federal Status: Threatened

Diet: Algae and sea grass

Size: Up to 3 feet and 350 pounds

Lifespan: 60-70 years

Green sea turtles are a wide-ranging species that in U.S. Atlantic waters can be found from Massachusetts to Texas. Their diet of marine plants turns their cartilage and fat green, giving the species its name. During their stay in New York, juveniles and occasionally adults are seen in sea grass beds off the east end of Long Island and foraging in the Peconic Estuary. They nest from June through September in the southeast U.S.

Loggerhead sea turtle laying on sandy shore with ocean in background
Image Credit
NOAA Fisheries

New York Status: Threatened

Federal Status: Threatened

Diet: Shellfish (crabs, clams, mussels)

Size: Up to 3 feet and 350 pounds

Lifespan: 70-80 years

Loggerhead sea turtles are the most frequently sighted sea turtle in New York. They inhabit different areas during different parts of their lives; juveniles are found in nearshore bays and Long Island Sound while other age groups, including adults, are found over 40 miles from shore.

leatherback sea turtle swimming at the top of the ocean
Image Credit
NOAA Fisheries

New York Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Endangered

Diet: Jellyfish

Size: Up to 6 feet and 2,000 pounds

Lifespan: Unknown

As one of the largest reptiles on Earth, the leatherback sea turtle is an exceptionally unique species. Leatherbacks get their name from their black, rubbery skin. In contrast to the hard, bony shells of the other sea turtle species, their shell is made of small cartilage-like scales. The pliability of their shells allows leatherbacks to dive thousands of feet under intense pressure. They are also the only warm-blooded reptile, capable of regulating their own body temperature.

Leatherbacks are the most widely distributed sea turtle and reptile, found in all oceans except the Arctic and Antarctic. They are seen all around New York, just off the southern coast of Long Island, offshore in the New York Bight, and within Long Island Sound.

Kemps Ridley sea turtle laying on sandy beach
Image Credit
NOAA Fisheries

New York Status: Endangered

Federal Status: Endangered

Diet: A little bit of everything

Size: Up to 2 feet and 100 pounds

Lifespan: At least 30 years

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is the second most common sea turtle in New York. They’re the smallest of the sea turtle species and are identifiable by their heart-shaped shell. Hatchlings enter an “oceanic phase” of drifting among Sargassum algae, using it for safety and food. After this phase which lasts about two years, Kemp’s ridleys migrate to nearshore areas of the northwest Atlantic Ocean. In New York, we see juveniles in this coastal phase of life, often in the shallow areas of sounds, bays, and estuaries.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles likely reach maturity around 13 years old. In all sea turtle species, adult females are the only individuals that return to land, where they lay eggs after migrating hundreds to thousands of miles. Kemp’s ridleys nest in the western Gulf of Mexico though rare nesting events have been documented along the U.S. East Coast. In 2018, New York became the northern-most recorded nesting site for a Kemp’s ridley. This nesting event, which resulted in 96 successfully hatched turtles, is an important reminder of climate change impacts still to come. 

Threats and Conservation

There are many significant and increasing threats to sea turtles throughout their ranges and in the Northeast U.S. Here, we focus only on the threats currently impacting sea turtles in New York. It’s important to note, however, that many other threats exist, such as light pollution causing confusion in nesting females and hatchlings, sea level rise washing away nests, rising sand temperature creating only female embryos, and direct harvesting of sea turtles and their eggs. Though these threats exist outside of New York, they nonetheless impact the turtles that travel to New York each summer. DEC works closely with partners from federal agencies, other states, non-profit organizations, and academic and independent scientists on the monitoring and conservation of sea turtles in our area.

New York’s Section 6 Agreement 

Since 1992 New York State has worked jointly with NOAA’s Office of Protected Resources to establish and maintain DEC’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 6 Limited Authority Cooperative Agreement. The New York State Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) and Part 182 of the New York Codes, Rules, and Regulations grant authority for management and conservation of threatened and endangered species to DEC. Activities like the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Response Program, among others, continue DEC’s commitment to the conservation and protection of the species that fall under New York’s Section 6 Agreement. Each year, DEC’s Division of Marine Resources resubmits its marine endangered species list and provides conservation action updates to the NOAA Greater Atlantic Region Fisheries Office (GARFO) to retain our Section 6 Agreement for the next 12 months.

When sea turtles are at the surface to breathe or while feeding in shallow areas, they are at risk of serious injury and death from vessel strikes. Numerous sea turtles are killed by vessel strikes every summer, with evidence of sharp and/or blunt force trauma based on carcass documentation and necropsy. 

Deceased loggerhead sea turtle with vessel strikes in rocky pond area
Image Credit
Atlantic Marine Conservation Society
A loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) found deceased due to vessel strike in the Wolfe’s Pond area of Staten Island in August 2021. 
Poster displaying safe boating tips for being around sea turtles
Image Credit
NOAA Fisheries

How You Can Help

To safely avoid collisions, vessel operators and crew/passengers can: 

  • Watch for sea turtles in the water. Give them at least 50 yards of space. If you see them closer to the vessel, put your engine in neutral to avoid injury.
  • Watch for schools of small fish or jellyfish – sea turtles could be nearby.
  • Wear polarized sunglasses to help you better see animals in the water.
  • Retrieve your mooring system (anchor and ball) before returning to port.
  • Report injured or dead marine animals to (888) 256-9840.

Watch the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) video titled "Go Slow: Sea Turtles Below."

Bycatch is the unintentional and unwanted catch of species other than the target species. If bycatch happens in large enough quantities, such as commercial fishing operations in established habitat, it can affect species at the population level and impede recovery. Like other marine animals, sea turtles can easily become entangled, trapped, and drown in active or discarded fishing gear. Sea turtles can also be entangled in fishing gear yet free-swimming. The entanglement configuration itself and/or the drag caused by its weight can then prevent sea turtles from migrating, feeding, and reproducing normally. 

Recreational rod and reel fishing can also unintentionally seriously injure or kill sea turtles. A sea turtle can completely swallow a hook, which may do significant damage to its stomach and internal organs, or it can get hooked externally on the body. Unless found and disentangled, entangled sea turtles may not survive. 

NOAA is exploring options to address the bycatch of sea turtles in commercial trawl gear in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean south of Massachusetts. Options include a northward extension of the Turtle Excluder Device (TED) requirement, requiring TEDs in additional fisheries, and requiring a larger escape opening in some existing TED requirements. Stakeholders can continue to provide feedback to NOAA via email. 

Every year, as mandated under the ESA, NOAA also identifies the commercial and recreational fisheries required to take sea turtle observers on board for 5-year periods to learn more about fishery interactions. These Annual Determinations are proposed after consulting with state partners like DEC about which fisheries should be considered. In 2024, no fisheries were added to the list.

How You Can Help
  • Never abandon fishing gear. Hooks, lines, or nets left in the water can entangle and kill sea turtles.
  • Use barbless circle hooks.
  • Recycle fishing line and discard your trash on shore in the appropriate receptacles.
  • Change your fishing location if sea turtles are in the immediate area and show interest in your bait or catch.  
  • Don’t cast your line if a sea turtle is in the area.
  • Don’t discard bait or fish remains into the water—sea turtles may associate the area with food and be further at risk of capture or entanglement in hook and line gear.

See NOAA’s Recommendations to Reduce Injuries If You Hook or Entangle a Sea Turtle for more tips. 

A sea turtle entangled in balloon ribbons in the Ocean
Image Credit
Chris Spies, DEC
A Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is entangled in balloon ribbons off New York.

A number of specific threats fall under the category of “marine pollution and debris”.

  • Marine debris is known to be mistaken for food by sea turtles. Ingestion of food-like items such as plastic bags and balloons can cause blockages, starvation, and other digestive injuries that may eventually lead to death. 
  • Coastal development and waste runoff can degrade or even destroy important sea turtle habitat such as eelgrass beds, which are already sensitive to environmental changes.
  • Microplastics have been found in the gut of every sea turtle species. Microplastics are so pervasive that there is evidence of its transfer between a mother sea turtle and her eggs. 
  • Sea turtles also contend with the event-specific increases of marine pollution such as oil spills and natural disasters.
How You Can Help
  • Reduce single-use items and carry reusable water bottles and shopping bags.
  • Participate in coastal clean-ups to keep our beaches and ocean clean.
  • Refrain from releasing balloons. Most often, they end up in the ocean and become a threat to sea turtles. 

Climate Change is Here

Squad of turtles on sandy shore moving towards ocean
Image Credit
Jason Wickersty, National Park Service (NPS)
Some of the 96 Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings making their way to the ocean from West Beach.

The Northeast U.S. is experiencing more rapid change in the form of rising water temperature than any other place on earth. As a result, warmer water temperatures allow sea turtles to remain in the area longer than usual. When there is a sudden drop in water temperature before sea turtles migrate out of the area, they can become cold-stunned.

As reptiles, sea turtles are cold-blooded animals and cannot regulate their body temperature. In cold water they become hypothermic and extremely lethargic, unable to swim. In this weak, inactive state, they often appear dead and can be found floating at the ocean surface even though they are actually alive. The colder the temperature and the longer the duration of exposure, the worse the effects. Unless the turtles wash ashore and are rescued by stranding response groups, cold-stunning often results in mortality. 

Luckily, the Northeast region’s stranding network is well-versed in the rehabilitative care of cold-stunned sea turtles. New York Marine Rescue Center is the primary response group for live sea turtles in New York and every year they save dozens of sea turtles from succumbing to cold stunning. For more information on cold-stunning and how it’s treated, visit our Stranding Response page.

In addition to increased cold-stun risk, climate change is altering physical ocean properties like salinity and oxygen levels, which can cause shifts in the range, abundance, and quality of sea turtle prey. Following their prey may put sea turtles in high-risk areas that were not previously used as habitat, and therefore may have no regulatory protection in place from human activity. Changes in ocean currents could affect sea turtle migration and the survival of oceanic-stage juveniles, which remain largely unknown. 

Sea turtles are already responding to these large-scale shifts in their marine environment. One important example is the nesting event that occurred in July 2018 by a Kemp’s ridley, the most endangered species of sea turtle we see here in New York. The nest was excavated to protect the eggs from high tides and 110 eggs were incubated for a little over two months. Ninety-six hatchlings were released at West Beach on the Rockaway Peninsula and made their way to sea. This was the first recorded Kemp’s ridley nest in New York and the northern-most nesting location on the East Coast to date. This event triggered planning discussions among agencies and environmental groups in New York for future nesting event management. 

Figure showing Sea Turtle sightings from 2017-2020

Local and Regional Research 

Scientists in New York and the greater Northeast region are hard at work learning more about sea turtles and their threats to enact effective conservation and management measures. DEC’s Whale Monitoring Program prioritizes the collection of sea turtle sightings data in addition to whale sightings data. The 2017-2020 aerial survey sea turtle sightings were incorporated into density surface models, which estimate the distribution and abundance of sea turtle species on the East Coast. These models are then used to quantify potential impacts to sea turtles from human activities and inform the permitting process.

The published density surface models can be found here: DiMatteo, A., Roberts, J. J., Jones, D., Garrison, L., Hart, K. M., Kenney, R. D., ... & Sparks, L. (2024). Sea turtle density surface models along the United States Atlantic Coast. Endangered Species Research, 53, 227-245.

Visit the links below to see the incredible work our partners are doing: 

Atlantic Marine Conservation Society Sea Turtle Recovery Partnership

New York Marine Rescue Center Research

Greater Atlantic Region Sea Turtle Program

NEFSC Gear Research Series: Going Low to Reduce Sea Turtle Bycatch

Sea Turtle Ecology and Population Dynamics in the Northeast

New York Bight Sea Turtle Workshop

The New York Ocean Action Plan (OAP) identifies the need to improve our understanding of the abundance, distribution, and behavior of sea turtles in New York. DEC is currently working to develop and implement a comprehensive monitoring plan for sea turtles in the New York Bight. An experts' workshop was held in the winter of 2018 to identify the best monitoring methods. To learn more about this effort and its results, take a look at the summary report of the New York Bight Sea Turtle Workshop.

Additional Sea Turtle Resources

Turtle Excluder Devices
Addressing Coastal Balloon Debris (Video)
NYSG Awarded $5.2 million in Federal Funding to Address Marine Debris
What Can You Do to Save Sea Turtles?
Contact for this Page

Division of Marine Resources
123 Kings Park Blvd. (Nissequogue River State Park)
Kings Park, NY 11754

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