The Poorly Known Northeast Atlantic Regional Management Unit for Loggerhead (<i>Caretta caretta</i>)

Loggerheads are distributed by ten Regional Management Units (RMUs) worldwide. The Atlantic Ocean houses three of these: the Northwest, Southwest and Northeast RMUs. The most studied is, so far, the Northwest RMU, but the other two have focused attention of researchers. In contrast, marine turtles from the African Atlantic region (Southeast) belong to a complex but little-known region. What is their role in the Atlantic? Are these RMUs connected? To understand these questions, research was made of reports and publications concerning the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) RMU. The asymmetry in information and available knowledge about NEA is high when compared to other RMUs. This demonstrates that there is still a lack of conservation programs besides Cape Verde, and that there is difficulty in transforming data (nesting ecology, molecular, telemetry, etc.) into publications. However, this issue is evident for other marine turtle species of East African Atlantic. There is a need for better scientific support, to enable local conservation programs to deliver data in reports, and even scientific publications. There are so many aspects of loggerhead’s life cycle that will only be unravelled by more and better supported studies. This is a paper that, by analysing the available information of the NEA loggerhead RMU, reflects the following steps to address in loggerhead conservation for the African Atlantic coast.