Long-line fisheries also threaten the Ridleys. The fishing lines often entangle and hook the ridley. The Olive Ridley was formerly known as the pacific Ridley, until it became generally recognized that the species also occurred in tropical parts of the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Indian Ocean. It is a small, hard shelled marine turtle, one of the two species of the genus Lepidochelys , and a member of the family Chelonidea . The turtle may be identified by the numbers of costal scutes.
Costal scutes are present in all turtles.
However, the number of costal scutes apparently varies from one area to another. Specimens with only five pairs of costals, are somewhat more abundant in the eastern Pacific than elsewhere. The coloration of the shell is lighter in the western Atlantic, and the shell seems to be more elevated in the eastern Pacific. The range of the Olive Ridley is mostly tropical. In the eastern Pacific nesting lakes place from Southern Sonora, Mexico, South at least to Colombis.