There was a message regarding where dead sea turtles in Cape Hateras would have come
from, with speculation that they drifted from Florida. I'm no herpetologist, but I do know
that although Florida has far more, there are nesting populations of loggerheads in Georgia,
South Carolina, and North Carolina. I believe both loggerhead and green sea turtles are not
too unusual in summer as far north as Massachusetts (thanks to the warm Gulf Stream), and,
of course, leatherbacks, that most remarkable of reptiles, are routinely found that far north
and farther, having been reported from Norway, Iceland, Labrador, and Newfoundland,
although they nest in much warmer climes.

Incidentally, we don't do as well on the west coast because our current goes the wrong way
for the semi-tropical stuff, but there are resident green turtles in southern San Diego Bay in
winter, which hang out around a warm-water plume from, I believe, a power plant.
Loggerheads are summer visistors in southern CA, and green and olive ridleys are not too
unusual farther north in summer, especially during el nino years, with records from Alaska.
Leatherbacks are regular seasonally in Monterey Bay, CA. I am ignorant about whether
they are regularly seen farther north than that, but they have been reported from British
Columbia, Alaska, and the Bering and Barents seas!

Paul R. Wade
National Marine Mammal Lab
7600 Sand Point Way, NE
Seattle, WA 98115
wade at racesmtp.afsc.noaa.gov
(206) 526-4539