WASHINGTON (AP) – A new federal study has found that more threatened loggerhead sea turtles are injured or killed by the mid-Atlantic scallop fishery than earlier estimates indicated.

Scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center released new estimates finding that 630 turtles were caught by heavy scallop dredges along the mid-Atlantic between June and November 2003, leaving up to 458 killed or injured.

A study earlier this year looked at a very limited range of locations and found that about 110 turtles were caught by the scallop dredges.

The findings could prompt federal authorities to revisit whether scallopers operating between Long Island, N.Y., and Cape Hatteras, N.C., should be required to use special gear or take additional steps to protect the turtles.

Researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Oceana said the study confirms claims they raised in a lawsuit last year.

The suit charged that the National Marine Fisheries Service is not adequately protecting endangered and threatened sea turtles in the mid-Atlantic from the scallop dredges.

“The implications of this report are stunning,” said Oceana attorney Chris Zeman. “More than 70 percent of all turtle interactions result in injury or death, so this places the second-most valuable Northeast fishery in the embarrassing position of being a leading cause of injury and death to the loggerhead sea turtle – a species already threatened with extinction.”

Fisheries Service spokeswoman Teri Frady said the study will give federal officials more reliable information on the impact scallop dredges have on the sea turtles. Using that information, the agency will decide whether the impact is significant.

“If it’s significant, we will have to start working with scallop industry to find ways to reduce the risk to turtles,” said Frady.

Any proposed changes in the regulations or requirements for the scallop industry, to either adjust the gear or its use, would come through the New England Fisheries Management Council. The scallop industry has been testing gear that would prevent the turtles from being caught.

The New Bedford scallop fleet lands about 80 percent of its catch in the mid-Atlantic zone.

Last month a federal judge in Washington rejected Oceana’s request to close the scallop fishery until the NMFS took action to protect the sea turtles.