It has been long since sea turtles have been revealed as threatened on the U. S. Endangered Species List for more than 30 years, but today federal agencies are proposing to tighten the protections for loggerhead turtles, the long-lived sea creatures known for their big heads and capacity to swim thousands of miles across the Pacific.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service are reported to propose a rule Wednesday that would put seven distinct loggerhead populations on the endangered species list, including two in the Pacific.

"More needed to be done to protect this species," said Andrea Treece, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which along with other environmental groups petitioned the government to alter the listing for North Pacific and Northwest Atlantic loggerhead populations.

The Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, from southern Virginia through Alabama are revealed as the main region where loggerhead nests are widely found.

The North Pacific population hatches on the Japanese coast and some juveniles migrate to within a couple of hundred miles of California, where they feed in open waters.