Under the US Endangered Species Act, nesting populations of Olive Ridleys along the Pacific Coast of Mexico are protected as Endangered and all others are listed as Threatened. The Olive Ridley turtle population is very low and is getting lower. This is due to the capture of turtles in shrimp trawler nets. It is hopes that with enough enforcement, trawlers will no longer cause the deaths of so many turtles. In the area from Mexico to Colombia a lot of egg collecting is done by the local people.
Many times there are more egg collectors as there are turtles.
This continues the decline in Olive Ridley population. 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 .