KEMP'S RIDLEY TURTLE (ATLANTIC) 



Common Name: KEMP'S RIDLEY TURTLE 

 Scientific Name: Lepidochelys kempii 



Listing Date: 12/02/70 



Species Status: Endangered 



Species Trend: Stable 



Current Estimated Population: 400-600 



SPECIES POPULATION STATUS 



The Kemp's ridley was listed as endangered throughout its range on December 2. 1970. This 

 species is the most endangered of all sea turtle species. The current population of Kemp's 

 ridleys is a mere fraction of historical levels when an estimated 40.000 females nested in one day 

 in 1947. Abundance of adults declined from a population that produced 6,000 nests in 1966 to a 

 population that produced 924 nests in 1978 and continued to decline through the mid 1980's. 

 The decline of this species was most likely caused by human impacts at sea and at the primary 

 nesting beach near Rancho Nuevo, in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. The Mexican 

 government began protecting the Rancho Nuevo nesting beach from poachers in 1966. and in 

 1978, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Pesca began a 

 cooperative program to increase the nest protection and relocation program at Rancho Nuevo. 



Current estimates of adult population show the species appears to be in an early stage of 

 exponential expansion. Over the period 1987-1995, the rate of increase in the annual number of 

 nests accelerated. Adult Kemp's ridley numbers have grown from a low of approximately 1,050 

 adults producing 702 nests in 1985, to a 1995 estimate of 3,000 adults producing 1.940 nests. 

 This upward trend should continue with continued increased hatchling production and 

 continuation of protection at sea with the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs): however, the 

 species cannot be considered stable because it remains well below historical levels. 



SPECIES BIOLOGY 



Kemp's ridley is one of the smallest of all marine turtles. Adult females measure 58-80 cm in 

 straight carapace length and weigh 40-50 kg. Kemp's ridleys' shells are usually as wide as they 

 are long. Coloration changes significantly during development from the grey-black carapace and 

 plastron of hatchlings to the lighter grey-olive carapace and cream-white or yellowish plastron of 

 adults. There are two pairs of prefrontal scales on the head, five vertebral scutes, five pairs of 

 costal scutes and generally twelve pairs of marginals on the carapace. In each bridge adjoining 

 the plastron to the carapace, there are four scutes, each of which is perforated by a pore. This is 

 the external opening of Rathke's gland which secretes a substance of unknown (possibly a 



33 



