Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle - Chuck Wheaton

Help Save The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle

03.07.2018

Chuck Wheaton

Bio 227

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

Ecology  

Physical Description

The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle or the Lepidochelys kempii are the most critically endangered of all sea turtles, they are also the smallest of all sea turtles. The adults can weigh between 75 and 100 Lbs and can reach lengths of only 48 inches. These turtles have small rounded, olive and gray colored shells and a triangular shaped head. When hatched, these turtles are gray and black, but as they grow into adult turtles their plastron (underside of the shell) fades from darker colors into greenish white, their skin becomes creamy and white, and their shells become olive gray to green.

Diet
The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle’s diet mainly consists of blue crab, jellyfish, mollusks, and fish but they also are known to be adaptive eaters.

Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Eggs
(Photo via Endangered Species Project, 2013)

Life Span
These turtles can live for up to 45 years of age.

Number of turtles today

Estimated between 1000 -10,000       

Taxonomy        

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Cheloniidae

Family: Lepidochelys

Genus: Kempii  

Nesting

The Kemp’s Ridleys Sea Turtle can lay up to 100 eggs at a time! They also lay eggs in large groups called “arribada”. These turtles have an incubation period can be from 48-62 days, throughout the months of March-June. They lay the smallest eggs of all sea turtles, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Females can mother 2-3 nests in a season and more than 95% of the entire population nests near Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. These turtles reach sexual maturity at around the age of 10 years old.

(Video via Sea Turtle Inc.)

Turtles nesting in an arribada in Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.  (Photo via The Herald, Brownsville)

The red is the population distribution of the Kemps Ridley 
(Photo via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Species Distribution

These turtles can be found from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. They migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to the New England waters in warmer conditions. The Kemp’s tend to say closer to shore, as they are neritic, which means they prefer shallow areas. They can be found in lagoons and bays as well. You can see the nesting site on Google Earth here: https://conserveturtles.org/information-about-sea-turtles-kemps-ridley-sea-turtle/

Population and Geographic Changes

In the 1940’s, it was said that more than 100,000 Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles would come on the shore and nest

in a single day, but by the 80’s there were only a couple hundred turtles spotted nesting a season. Today the population is estimated in be between 1,000 and 10,000 nest females.

Listing Date and Type of Listing

The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles was listed as “critically endangered” on December 2nd, 1970 and has been

under the ESA protection since that time. However, the official approved recovery plan was not published

until 2011                                                                                                                     

Threats of the Kemp’s Ridleys Sea Turtle

The largest threat to the Kemp’s Ridleys Sea Turtle is human interference. Originally, there was a large exploitation of the Kemp’s Ridleys eggs from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. Before the harvesting of these eggs, these turtles were seen in nesting groups upwards of 40,000 thousand (as seen in the video). After this, the Mexican and American governments outlawed the harvesting of the eggs. These turtles hit an all-time low in nesting numbers in 1985 with a total of 702 turtles laying eggs in Rancho Nuevo and between the years of 1978 and 1991, there were only about 200 sea turtles seen nesting a year. Today the population remains under very strict protection and are showing signs in the early stages of full recovery.  However, these turtles are still a bycatch product of commercial fishermen, they become caught in shrimp trawls, longlines, gill nets, traps, and pots. They also end up tangled in trash and fishing line and are unable to surface and therefore drown.

Conservation Efforts

The U.S. and Mexican Government have been making strong efforts to protect the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. The second version of the Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, published and approved in 2011, includes an extensive plan to see out this creature’s recovery.

Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle

This Recovery Plan is broken down into 3 recovery elements. Recovery Goals, Recovery Strategy, and Recovery Criteria.

1. Recovery Goals

The goal of the Recovery program is to protect the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle to the point that protection under the Endangered Species Act is no longer necessary.

2. Recovery Strategy

There are a couple strategies that have been put in place to help conserve the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. The first is to continue using strategies that have proven to work in the past. This includes protecting their native habitat, protecting nesting females, and protecting their respective nests. In the ocean, fisheries are required to use Turtle Exclusion Devices, (TED’s) that help fishies find and avoid turtle bycatch. The strategies also include monitoring the turtle’s breeding, migration, nesting, and eating habits to better know and predict the turtle's behavior and react accordingly. Lastly, to ensure the survival of these turtles, the plan includes implementing educational programs to inform the public and community about the nature and history of these animals.

3. Recovery Criteria

Recovery Criteria is listed into two separate segments, Downlisting Criteria and Delisting Criteria, each of which are broken Demographic Criteria and Listing Factor Criteria.   

1. Downlisting Criteria

Demographic

To be downlisted on the endangered species list, there needs to be at least 10,000 nesting females documented in a nesting season on their main nesting beaches, which are Rancho Nuevo, Tepehuajes, and Playa Dos. There also must be 300,000 documented hatchings that make it into the water in a single nesting season.

Listing Factor

The Listing Factor Criteria entails five factors including threatened habitat range, overutilization, disease, the inadequacy of human mechanism, and natural or manmade factors. These are the factors that have contributed to the listing of the Kemp’s Ridleys Sea Turtle, and they cannot be downlisted until these factors have been addressed and the demographic criteria for downlisting have been met. However, the plan has addressed these factors and put teams together to identify man-made and natural factors that are affecting this species.        

2. Delisting Criteria

Demographic

For the complete removal of these turtles off the endangered species list, there must be 40,000 nesting females on their primary nesting beach per season in a six-year period. There have been methods in use to ensure correct counting of nesting females.

Listing Factors  

The listing factors for the complete removal of the species from the Endangered Species list is similar to the downlisting factors of threatened habitat range, overutilization, disease, an inadequacy of human mechanism, and natural or manmade factors. However, the difference lies in that these listing factors will not be satisfied until the demographic criteria for delisting have been met.

Actions Taken

Below is a summarization of the actions needed to be taken as said by the “Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle”.

• Protect and manage nesting and marine habitats
• Protect and manage populations on the nesting beaches and in the marine environment
• Maintain a stranding network  
• Manage captive stocks  
• Educate the public  
• Develop community partnerships
• Maintain and develop local, state, and national government partnerships  
• Maintain, promote awareness of, and expand U.S. and Mexico laws  
• Implement international agreements
• Enforce laws in the marine and terrestrial environment and in the marketplace         

When Will They Be Recovered?

According to the Bi-National Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle has seen a growth rate on 19% a season since conservations efforts have been taken, and if this trend continues, this endangered species could be delisted in 2024.

(Photo via National Park Service)

What can you do?

Sea turtles often times mistake plastic in the ocean for jellyfish and choke. You can help protect the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle by reducing your waste and disposing of it properly so. You can also avoid buying products made from turtle parts. Products like jewelry, guitars, and small souvenirs are made from turtle shells sold to tourists all around the world. You can also avoid buying products the use turtle oil and turtle skin, which are popular in some parts of the world. These products have a devastating effect on the protection efforts of the Kemp Ridley Sea Turtles and helping lower the demand for these products can and will help the recovery cause. You can also donate to send a turtle to rehab at the World Wildlife Foundation at https://live.adyen.com/hpp/pay.shtml!

Resources

Works Cited

904-731-3332, Public Affairs Office NFESO. “Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys Kempii).” Official Web Page of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 7 Feb. 2018, www.fws.gov/northflorida/seaturtles/turtle%20factsheets/kemps-ridley-sea-turtle.htm.

Fisheries, NOAA. “Kemp's Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys Kempii).” NOAA Fisheries, NOAA, 15 May 2014, www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/kempsridley.html#taxonomy.

Indenbaum, Rosa. “High Demand for Sea Turtle Products.” Defenders of Wildlife Blog, Defenders of Wildlife, 21 Mar. 2016, defendersblog.org/2016/03/five-ways-market/.

“Information About Sea Turtles: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle – Sea Turtle Conservancy.” Sea Turtle Conservancy, Sea Turtle Conservancy, 2017, conserveturtles.org/information-about-sea-turtles-kemps-ridley-sea-turtle/.

“Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle.” Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle, Sea Turtles Inc., www.seaturtleinc.org/education/about-sea-turtles/kemps-ridley/.

“The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 17 Oct. 2015, www.nps.gov/pais/learn/nature/kridley.htm.

“Kemp's Ridley Turtle.” WWF Global, WWF, 2017, wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/marine_turtles/kemps_ridley_turtle/.

“Kemp’s Ridleys Gather at Rancho Nuevo to Lay Eggs.” The Herald, The Herald, Brownsville, Texas, 6 June 2018, www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_88b9572a-d7c6-11e2-b9e7-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=image&photo=0.

Lemiec, Gail. “Aquarium Caring for Injured Sea Turtles.” North Carolina Aquarium, North Carolina Aquarium, 5 Dec. 2015, seaturtleexploration.com/aquarium-caring-for-injured-sea-turtles/.

Moran, and Kinsolving. “The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle .” Endangered Species Project, 2013, www.drakehs.org/academics/seadisc/endangeredspecies/2013/kemps%20ridley/website%20files/conservationefforts.html.

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.

Sea Turtle Inc., director. 1947 Clip of an Arribada — What Healthy Sea Turtle Populations Should Look like!! Youtube, Youtube, 27 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1hoIxrAcQ8#action=share.

Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle.” Species Profile for Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys Kempii), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?sId=5523.