The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle by Ashley Fagan

🐢 Description and Ecology

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is a small sea turtle species, being only 2 feet in size and about 100 pounds (Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)). They are the second smallest sea turtle, second to their close relative the olive ridley sea turtle.The Kemp’s ridley separated from the olive ridley sea turtle approximately 2.5-3.5 million years ago (National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and SEMARNAT). They are distributed all along the east coasts of the United States and Mexico. The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is the most endangered sea turtle species in the world. Their turtle shells are generally a light green-gray color as adults which differs from the dark gray-black shells of hatchlings (Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle). Their shells are almost as wide as they are long. Their diet consists of crabs, jellyfish, shellfish, and some seaweed. Females can not lay eggs until they are 10-12 years old. Nesting happens from April to July. When nesting happens, females all emerge along the beach at the same time to lay their eggs. They are able to nest every couple years, laying about 100 eggs each time. Sadly only 1% of those hatchlings tend to survive to adulthood (Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle).

🐢 Geographic and Population Changes
Although the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle can be found along the United States and Mexican coast, the primary nesting spots for them are located along Mexico and Texas. Some major nesting sites occur in Mexico’s Tamaulipas and Veracruz. As well as Padre Island in Texas. In 1947, it is estimated that there was over 40,000 nesting females observed in Mexico. In only three decades, this number decreased to about 924 (National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and SEMARNAT).  Ever since the recovery plan was put into place for Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in 1992, the number of nests has been on a slow incline as seen in the graphs.

🐢 Listing Date and Type of Listing
The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was first listed as endangered in 1970. They were then listed under the Endangered Species Act as well. Their recovery plan was made in 1984 and revised in 1992 (Kemp's Ridley).

🐢 Cause of Listing and Main Threats

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was initially listed in 1970 as endangered because of hunting. After females would lay their eggs and leave, their eggs were often snatched up by humans looking to eat or sell the eggs. Due to conservation efforts, the harvesting of their eggs has decreased. More recently, threats to the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle include habitat loss, water pollution, and being caught as bycatch. Many of the beaches that these turtles lay their eggs on are inhabited by humans for recreation. Many beaches are used for vacation resorts that prevent the turtles from ever laying eggs because the great amount of tourists. Water pollution such as plastic bags, straws, and soda can rings all threaten the health of these turtles. Many mistake these plastics as food, eat them, and choke to death or become blocked in their stomach. Oil spills also kill the turtles as seen in the picture where a dead Kemp’s ridley turtle washed ashore covered in oil. Longline fishing and nets who are fishing for other marine life often accidentally entangle the turtles instead and kill or injure them.

🐢 Recovery Plan

The plan to rehabilitate the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle included protecting the beaches that the turtles would nest on, blocking the beaches from human contact. The plan also included “head-starting” where the eggs would be collected after the female leaves the nesting site. Scientists would then incubate the eggs until they hatch and then they release the hatchlings close to the water. This protects them from egg poachers as well as crabs, birds, and other predators that would eat the hatchlings. They also issued turtle excluder devices to fisheries which reduced the mortality of turtles in gillnets. They planned to get all fisheries that are near the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle’s range to use these devices. The plan also encouraged educational programs to make people aware of conservation efforts.

🐢 What can you do to #savetheturles !?

There are large measures you can take to save the turtles like volunteering to clean up trash from the beaches but there is also simple measures that you could easily implement into your daily life that would go a long way. If you live near the beach, make sure you turn off your lights at night or it will confuse the hatchlings when they try to find the ocean. You can also stay aware of nesting sites so you do not damage them if you are walking on the beach. If you see a nesting female, do not disturb them because they can easily be scared back into the ocean without laying their eggs. Reducing your waste and chemicals can also help turtles from pollution. If you know a fishery near you that does not use a turtle excluder device, you can write to them and ask them to use one. Lastly, donating towards conservation efforts goes a long way. Every penny counts!

🐢 Other Resources

Donate to the turtles today!: http://www.seeturtles.org/billion-baby-turtles/

Why the world needs sea turtles!: https://greentumble.com/why-are-sea-turtles-important-to-the-ecosystem/

General facts: https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-species-world/

Adopt a sea turtle!: https://secure.defenders.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=wagc_seaturtle&s_src=3WEW1800XXXXX&s_subsrc=030718_adopt_block_sea-turtles/basic-facts

🐢 Citations

“Kemp's Ridley” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration, 24 May 2017, http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/kempsridley.html. Accessed 2 March 2018.

“Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle.” National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/k/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle/. Accessed 2 March 2018.

“Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii).” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, April 2015, https://www.fws.gov/northflorida/seaturtles/turtle%20factsheets/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle.htm. Accessed 2 March 2018.

National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and SEMARNAT. 2011. BiNational Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), Second Revision. National Marine Fisheries Service. Silver Spring, Maryland 156 pp. + appendices.  

🐢 Image Sources (in order of appearance)

Turtle emoji: http://www.iemoji.com/view/emoji/666/animals-nature/turtle  

Adult turtle photo: https://www.nps.gov/pais/learn/nature/kridley.htm

Hatchling photo: http://passporttotexas.org/category/shows/wildlife/endangered/

Map: http://www.ecology.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle-range-524.jpg

Graphs: https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/kempsridley_revision2_with%20signature.pdf

Oil spill photo: https://juliedermansky.photoshelter.com/image/I0000I0j8sHDY2XY