Grace Rowell
Learn About the Kemp Ridley Sea Turtle!
The Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is a stunningly unique kind of sea turtle, being the smallest and most endangered marine turtle in the world, with a notable shell and unusual nesting process. Often distinguished by its olive green and pale yellow almost circular carapace, or shell, a fully grown Kemp ridley has an average size of 30 inches and weight of 100 pounds (Oceana, 1970). Life for these marine turtles begins with an uncommon group event known as the arribada, or “arrival” in Spanish, in which females congregate from April to July of each year and lay up to three clutches of 100 eggs (Widecast, 2017). Unlike other sea turtles, Kemp ridley’s nest during the day, and their nesting is generally limited to areas near Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Before reaching sexual maturity at 10 to 16 years, young Kemp Ridley’s inhabit the deep oceanic waters of the Gulf of Mexico and search for crab, dead fish, and possibly discarded bycatch in shallower waters. Adults tend to prefer benthic environments that offer a greater abundance of crustaceans and mollusks. While hatchlings inevitably have diverse predators despite attempts to reduce predation risk through a synchronized egg-laying process, adults have very few predators besides the typical shark and human threats (Partymiller, n.d.).
The Kemp Ridley inhabits a wide range that includes the Gulf Coasts of Mexico and the U.S., as well as the Atlantic coast of North America (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2018). The Kemp’s ridley was heavily abundant in the Gulf of Mexico prior to the mid-20th century, with historic information indicating and documenting tens of thousands of ridleys nesting near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico in the late 1940s. (NOAA, n.d.).
The Kemp ridley’s population size can be characterized into two general time periods: prior to and superseding 2009, when an unexpected drop of more than a third of their population occurred. Historically, annual female abundance counts and indexes were estimating an exponential population increase of 19% per year, but after continued declining events from 2010 through 2017, scientists have hypothesized on multiple factors that could have caused their carrying capacity to decline (Caillouet, et al., 2018).
Like other animals living in the Gulf, the Kemp’s ridley has been struggling since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which as many as 20 percent of nesting females were killed, and feeding patterns were heavily affected (Watkins, 2020. Further, the decline of this species is primarily due to human activities, including chemical pollution or marine debris, incidental capture in commercial fishing operations, and the direct harvest of adults and eggs (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2018). While impactful conservation work has been accomplished, considering the species has been categorized as endangered since 1970 under the Endangered Species Act and is internationally listed as critically endangered, it is currently unclear if future nesting will steadily and continuously increase (The National Wildlife Federation, n.d.).
The Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp's Ridley
Due to the highly migratory behavior of sea turtles and their existence as a shared resource among many nations, government and non-government organizations in both the United States and Mexico collaborated on and recently revised a recovery plan for the Kemp’s Ridley. As listed by the NOAA, the major recovery actions for the Kemp’s Ridley include protecting turtles on nesting beaches, protecting nesting and foraging habitats, reducing the impacts of bycatch and marine debris, and working with international partners to protect the turtles in foreign waters.
Recovery criteria as related to demographics include a population of at least 10,000 nesting females in a season at the primary nesting beaches in Mexico. To be delisted, a 6-year average population of 40,000 nesting females per season is required, as it would allow for three nesting cycles and natural annual variability to be studied. So far, the Kemp's ridley has benefitted from recovery actions, especially those taken by the Mexican government, in which legal protections allowed for nesting refuges and reserves, as well as a ban on taking any species of sea turtle.
Main Conservation Efforts
Protecting habitat.
Reducing bycatch.
Rescue, disentanglement, and rehabilitation.
Eliminating the collection of turtles and their eggs.
Eliminating the harassment of turtles on nesting beaches through education and enforcement.
What Can You Do to Help The Kemp's Ridley?
Reduce Ocean Trash
Responsibly dispose of plastic, fishing line, and balloons
Participate in coastal clean-up events
Maintain Distance
Don’t disturb nesting turtles, nests, or hatchlings
Attend organized sea turtle watches
Never feed or touch sea turtles as it can cause changes to their behavior
Protect Their Habitat
Respect nesting beaches by removing obstacles like beach equipment and refraining from driving on nesting beaches
Resources
Learn About Marine Debris at https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/
Report Marine Life in Distress at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/report
Take Action & Donate at https://support.nwf.org/page/9281/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=WEB_MICBTN&df_id=32581&32581.donation=form1&s_subsrc=Web_Content_Donate_Blog_GulfPrograms&_ga=2.62625196.1835249418.1604781882-1380632208.1604251870
References
Caillouet, C. W., Raborn, S. W., Shaver, D. J., Putman, N. F., Gallaway, B. J., & Mansfield, K. L. (2018). Did Declining Carrying Capacity for the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Population Within the Gulf of Mexico Contribute to the Nesting Setback in 2010−2017? Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 17(1), 123-133. doi:10.2744/ccb-1283.1
Guillen, A., & Guillen, I. (2018). [Kemp’s ridley sea turtle swimming through an oil rig off the Texas coast]. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.npca.org/articles/1701-waiting-for-a-baby-boom
NASA. (2010). Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Range [Digital image]. Retrieved 2020, from https://ecotoad.org/tag/bp-oil-spill/
The National Wildlife Federation. (n.d.). Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle. Retrieved November, 2020, from https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Reptiles/Sea-Turtles/Kemps-Ridley-Sea-Turtle
NOAA. (n.d.). Kemp's Ridley Turtle. Retrieved November, 2020, from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/kemps-ridley-turtle
NOAA. (n.d.). [Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle on The Beach]. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/kemps-ridley-turtle
Oceana. (2020, September 01). Kemp's Ridley Turtle. Retrieved November, 2020, from https://oceana.org/marine-life/sea-turtles-reptiles/kemps-ridley-turtle
Partymiller, L. (n.d.). Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii). Retrieved November, 2020, from https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/lepkem.htm
Save The Sound. (n.d.). [Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles swimming]. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.savethesound.org/2019/07/27/plum-island-from-my-perspective/kemps-ridley-sea-turtles-swimming/
Sea Turtle Conservancy. (n.d.). [Dr Archie Carr fixing an early radio tracking device on a green sea turtle]. Retrieved 2020, from https://turtlesandtides.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/the-riddle-of-the-ridley/
Stankis, C. (2014). [A sea turtle with tumors caused by Fibropapillomatosis.]. Retrieved 2020, from https://phys.org/news/2014-09-pollution-linked-lethal-sea-turtle.html
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (2011). Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) SECOND REVISION. Retrieved 2020, from https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/kempsridley_revision2_with%20signature.pdf
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (2018, February 7). Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii). Retrieved 2020, from https://www.fws.gov/northflorida/seaturtles/turtle%20factsheets/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle.htm#:~:text=Sexual%20maturity%20is%20believed%20to,as%20Nova%20Scotia%20and%20Newfoundland
Watkins, G. (2020, June 19). Help the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle • The National Wildlife Federation Blog. Retrieved November, 2020, from https://blog.nwf.org/2016/09/help-the-kemps-ridley-sea-turtle/
Widecast. (2017). Basic Biology of the Kemp’s Ridley (Lepidochelys kempii). Retrieved November, 2020, from https://www.widecast.org/biology/kemps/
[Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle on The Beach]. (n.d.). Retrieved 2020, from https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/turtles/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle/kemps_ridley_sea_turtle.php
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