Kemp’s ridley sea turtles have the most romantic and the saddest story of all the sea turtles. For many years the location of their nesting sites was a mystery and it was suspected that they were not a true species but rather a hybrid of other turtles. However in the late 1940s they were filmed nesting in vast numbers at Rancho Nuevo, a remote beach in Mexico. Then it was estimated there were 40,000 nesting females, by the 1980s there were only 300. The population was being devastated through poaching of eggs and getting caught in shrimp trawlers. The situation become so bad that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ranked them as one of ‘the twelve most endangered species’ in the world. Today, thanks to a concerted conservation effort between the Mexican and USA Governments the Kemp’s ridley population is on the rise. However they are still listed as Critically Endangered and with around 2500 females nesting in 2003 there is still along way to go before there are safe.

Scientific Name
Lepidochelys kempii

Conservation status
Kemp’s ridley turtles are classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Description
Adults have a grayish green carapace (top of shell) and a pale yellowish to cream plastron (under part of shell). They have a triangular shaped head with a distinct beak. Kemp’s ridley are aggressive and will bite if caught. They are the smallest sea turtle species with a carapace measuring 0.6 to 0.7 metres as adults.

Hatchlings have a black carapace and dark coloured plastron.

Distribution
Kemp’s ridley turtles mainly nest along the east Mexican shore and are mainly found in the Gulf of Mexico. Adult males do not leave the vicinity of nesting sites and adult females will rarely leave the Gulf of Mexico. Some juveniles are taken by currents to the North American east coast and even across the Atlantic to Europe. Although they can be found in cool temperate waters they must migrate back to warmer waters before winter temperatures fall too low.

Habitat
Preferred habitats have sandy or muddy bottoms where prey can be found, especially inshore and near-shore waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico around Louisiana.

Lifecycle
Kemp’s ridley hatchlings drift north with currents, some remaining in the Gulf of Mexico, others being taken across the Atlantic or north along the American eastern seaboard. At 2 to 3 years they move to coastal feeding grounds, preferring shallow waters. They take 11 to 16 years to reach sexual maturity at which time they migrate back to breeding grounds in the Gulf of Mexico.

Diet
Adult Kemps ridley turtles are carnivorous and feed mainly on crabs. They are very agile and can turn extremely quickly: features that enable them to catch crabs. They also eat some molluscs and even sea horses. Juveniles drift with weed rafts and eat crabs, snails and sargassum seaweed.

Nesting
The main Kemp’s ridley nesting site is at Rancho Nuevo on the Mexican east coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Here they nest simultaneously in great numbers in events known as arribadas – Spanish for arrival. However numbers of Kemp’s ridleys are so depleted that the term arribadas no longer seems appropriate. Other main nesting sites are to the south of Rancho Nuevo.

A nesting project in Texas is attempting to restore numbers, though researchers will have to wait a few more years for hatchlings to reach maturity before the success of this project can be judged. Occasional solitary nesting occurs in Florida, USA.