AbStfclCt. A review of previ- 

 ous studies on Kemp's ridley sea 

 turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) diet 

 was combined with information on 

 the diet of the species in the 

 coastal waters of New York State. 

 Juvenile Kemp's ridleys occupy 

 coastal Long Island, New York 

 waters during the summer and 

 early autumn months. Both fecal 

 and intestinal samples collected 

 between 1985 and 1989 were ana- 

 lyzed to obtain information on the 

 diet of this endangered species. 

 Fecal and intestinal sample analy- 

 sis, as well as information from 

 previous studies, indicated that 

 juvenile Kemp's ridleys primarily 

 consume crabs. Walking crabs of 

 the genera Libinia and Cancer 

 appear to be the primary food 

 sources for the species in New 

 York waters. 



Diet of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle, 

 Lepidochelys kempii, in New York 

 waters 



Vincent J. Burke 



Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Department of Zoology 

 University of Georgia, Drawer E 

 Aiken. SC 29802 



Stephen J. Morreale 



Center for the Environment, Room 200, Rice Hall 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-5601 



v. 



Edward A. Standora 



Department of Biology, State University College at Buffalo 

 1 300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 1 4222 



Manuscript accepted 29 September 1993 

 Fishery Bulletin 92:26-32 (1994) 



The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, 

 Lepidochelys kempii, was placed on 

 the United States endangered spe- 

 cies list in December 1970 and was 

 listed as one of the twelve most 

 endangered species in the world by 

 the International Union for the 

 Conservation of Nature and Natu- 

 ral Resources in 1986 (Federal Reg- 

 ister, 1989; Marine Turtle Newslet- 

 ter, 1989). Despite a recent in- 

 crease in research on the Kemp's 

 ridley, little attention has been fo- 

 cused on its feeding habits. An un- 

 derstanding of the dietary require- 

 ments and available food resources 

 for the Kemp's ridley is a critical com- 

 ponent in the future management and 

 protection of this species' habitats. 



While occasional glimpses into 

 the composition of Kemp's ridley 

 diets have been obtained, detailed 

 quantified examinations of the spe- 

 cies' diet have only rarely been 

 undertaken (Table 1). In one of the 

 earliest accounts of the diet of 

 Kemp's ridleys, De Sola and 

 Abrams (1933) dissected "two foot 

 specimens" from the Georgia coast 

 and described the main dietary 

 component as Platyonichus ocel- 

 latus, later renamed the spotted 



lady crab, Ovalipes stephensonii 

 (Williams, 1984). 



Two decades later, the first pub- 

 lished record describing the diet of 

 the Kemp's ridley in the Gulf of 

 Mexico was produced (Liner, 1954). 

 In that study, gastrointestinal con- 

 tents of eight L. kempii ranging in 

 size from 3.2 kg to 26.6 kg were 

 examined. All the turtles had con- 

 sumed portunid crabs iCallinectes 

 sp.) and occasional barnacles. 

 Dobie et al. (1961), elaborating on 

 the findings of Liner (1954), re- 

 ported that small molluscs, plant 

 parts, and mud were also contained 

 in the gastrointestinal tracts of two 

 of Liner's turtles. The molluscs in- 

 cluded gastropods (Nassarius sp.) 

 and bivalves of the genera Nuculana, 

 Corbula, and probably Mulinia. 



In Virginia, Hardy (1962) dis- 

 sected a single specimen and found 

 that the digestive tract contained 

 95% Callinectes sp. and one 

 swimmerette was identified as that 

 of the blue crab, C. sapidus. Re- 

 search conducted in the waters of 

 Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, by 

 Lutcavage (1981) indicated that 

 three Kemp's ridley carcasses had 

 both blue crabs and Atlantic rock 



26 



