page_title: Kemp's ridley sea turtle
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Kemp's ridley sea turtle / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Kemp's ridley nests found on the Texas coast 1985-2013
context_page_description: Kemp's ridley sea turtle, also called the Atlantic ridley sea turtle, is the rarest species of sea turtle and is critically endangered. It is one of two living species in the genus Lepidochelys.
context_section_description: Egg harvesting and pouching first depleted the numbers of Kemp's ridley sea turtles, but today, major threats include habitat loss, pollution, and entanglement in shrimping nets.
  Efforts to protect L. kempii began in 1966 when Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Biologico-Pesqueras [National Institute of Biological-Fisheries Research] sent biologists Hunberto Chávez, Martin Contreras, and Eduardo Hernondez to the coast of southern Tamaulipas, Mexico to survey and instigate conservation plans. Kemp's ridley turtle was first listed under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1970 on December 2, 1970, and subsequently under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. In 1977 an informal, bi-national multi-agency The Kemp's Ridley Working Group first met to develop a recovery plan. A binational recovery plan was developed in 1984, and revised in 1992. A draft public review draft of the second revision was published by NOAA Fisheries in March 2010. This revision includes an updated threat assessment.
  One mechanism used to protect turtles from fishing nets is the turtle excluder device (TED). Because the biggest danger to the population of Kemp's ridley sea turtles is shrimp trawls, the device is attached to the shrimp trawl. It is a grid of bars with an opening at the top or bottom, fitted into the neck of the shrimp trawl. It allows small animals to slip through the bars and be caught while larger animals, such as sea turtles, strike the bars and are ejected, thus avoiding possible drowning.
  In September 2007, Corpus Christi, Texas, wildlife officials found a record of 128 Kemp's ridley sea turtle nests on Texas beaches, including 81 on North Padre Island (Padre Island National Seashore) and four on Mustang Island.  The figure was exceeded in each of the following 7 years (see graph to 2013, provisional figures for 2014 as at July, 118.). Wildlife officials released 10,594 Kemp's ridley hatchlings along the Texas coast that year. The turtles are popular in Mexico, as boot material and food.
caption: Kemp's ridley nests found on the Texas coast 1985-2013
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