How many kemps ridley turtles are there

They will reach sexual maturity as early as seven years of age or as late as 15, and females will often return to nest on the same beach as they were hatched. Kemp's ridley turtles face many threats both on shore and in the ocean, making them critically endangered. Primary threats to Kemp's ridley survival include incidental capture in fishing gear, or bycatch, egg collection and climate change.

Though egg collection has historically been a problem for this species, protections afforded to nesting beaches in by Mexico has allowed for slight increases in arribada size. In the 's, up to 55, loggerheads and Kemp's ridleys were killed each year in shrimp trawls. Since then, better enforcement of Turtle Excluder Devices TEDs in trawl nets has allowed for a slight comeback of the population, but until there is a fishery-wide requirement, the Kemp's ridley will likely remain endangered.

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The nesting population produced a low of nests in ; however, since the mids, the number of nests laid in a season has been increasing primarily due to nest protection efforts and implementation of regulations requiring the use of turtle excluder devices in commercial fishing trawls.

In , a total of 20, nests were documented in Mexico, 81 percent of these nests were documented along the In addition, in the United States, nests were recorded in , primarily in Texas. Today, under strict protection, we are cautiously optimistic that the population is on its way to recovery.

In , conservation efforts for the Kemp's ridley were initiated on the beach near Rancho Nuevo in Tamaulipas, Mexico. This locale is the only place in the world where large nesting aggregations of this sea turtle were and are known to occur. From to , conservation efforts focused on the area of Rancho Nuevo with one turtle protection camp. In , the U. In , this bi-national program expanded to the south and another camp was added.

In , a third camp was established when the program was expanded to the north of Rancho Nuevo. By , a total of seven camps had been established along the Tamaulipas and Veracruz coasts to allow for increased nest protection efforts. The Mexico government also prohibits harvesting and is working to increase the population through more intensive law enforcement, by fencing nest areas to diminish natural predation, and by relocating nests into corrals to prevent poaching and predation.

While relocation of nests into corrals is currently a necessary management measure, this protection effort is of concern since it makes the eggs more susceptible to reduced viability due to movement-induced mortality, altered sex ratios, disease vectors, catastrophic events like hurricanes, and marine predators that learn to concentrate efforts offshore from corral locations.

Eckert, K. Bjorndal, F. Abreu-Grobois, and M. Donnelly eds. Lutz, P.