Loggerhead sea turtles are the most common species of sea turtle in the US; the sandy beaches of Florida comprise one of the largest loggerhead turtle nesting sites in the world.

Female loggerhead sea turtles nest at night. They emerge from the water and crawl up into the dunes, searching for an appropriate nesting site. When they find such a place, they use their rear flippers to dig the nest.

When a female loggerhead has finished digging her nest, she begins to deposit her eggs, a few at a time. The eggs are approximately 4 cm in diameter and the females lay an average of 112 eggs per nest.

The eggs incubate for approximately two months. The hatchlings emerge at night and scramble down the beach to the water.

Loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings from the east coast of the US then swim offshore to the Gulf Stream, which sweeps them up into the North Atlantic Gyre (the current system depicted in the figure below) , where they will spend the first years of their lives.

After several years of pelagic existence, the loggerheads then return as juveniles to feeding grounds along the east coast of the US.