By current counts, only 380 female adults Kemp's ridley turtles still exist in the world. Fishermen harvest sea turtles for their meat and their shells. Turtle nesting sites are lost as more and more sea-side condominiums and resorts are constructed.
Turtles even fall prey by accident when captured in large fishing nets used by shrimpers.
Finally, turtles suffer the same fate as other water living creatures who must try to survive in the pollution mankind has dumped into their water. All of these reasons have combined to place the sea turtles on the brink of extinction. This program has been scrutinized carefully as a scientific experiment. The second purpose was to protect the baby turtles from natural predators until they had grown large enough so to be less vulnerable to enemies when returned to the Gulf of Mexico. Now the efforts to save the turtles have been dealt a blow.