Map of leatherback turtle critical habitat.

Under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, critical habitat may be designated by NOAA Fisheries for the conservation of threatened and endangered species under its jurisdiction.

These maps and corresponding Geographic Information Systems (GIS) shapefile data represent specific critical habitat areas for species in the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region. The Federal Register should be consulted for the precise legal definition of critical habitat and geographic coordinates. Esri's ArcGIS software or Google Earth can be used to open GIS shapefiles. Google Earth can also be used to open zipped KML (KMZ) files to view the designated critical habitat areas. Click here to download Google Earth. Metadata (information about the GIS shapefile data) is available in XML or an easy-to-read HTML format, and is included in the zipped shapefile.

For more information or questions about this data in the U.S. Caribbean please contact the GIS Coordinator at nmfs.ser.gis.coordinator@noaa.gov.