The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys kempii , is the smallest of the five species of sea turtles found in the Gulf of Mexico. It has an average length of 23 to 27.5 inches and average weight of 100 pounds. This sea turtle is the only one with an almost circular upper shell. The young are dark gray in color, but change as they mature.
Adults are olive green above and yellow below.
Their diet consists mostly of crabs. The Kemp's ridley adult's range is chiefly in the Gulf of Mexico, but immature turtles, probably carried by the currents, often appear along the Atlantic coast as far north as New England and Nova Scotia. Their nests consist of 80-100 eggs with an average of around 100. The species' primary nesting ground is on the beach near Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. To help insure their survival in the event of a disaster effecting the beach, the governments of the US and Mexico joined together to establish a second nesting beach at Padre Island National Seashore.