SUMMARY
Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) was studied over 3 summers in a nearshore habitat, the Patoku area in the southern part of Driniki Bay, Albania. Tissue samples were collected from 40 loggerhead turtles incidentally captured in stavnike fish-traps (a type of pond-net). A fragment of 859 base-pair mt-DNA d-loop region was amplified from these turtles and compared with previously described haplotypes. Haplotype CC-A2.1 (93%) was the dominant haplotype in the region. Two previously unknown haplotypes, CC-A6.1 and CC-A10.4, were decribed with this study. Furthermore, haplotype CC-A.2.8 was also observed which was previously recorded from Italy. Haplotype and nucleotide diversity were 0.14615 and 0.00017, respectively.