The hatchlings are raised in captivity for 9 to 10 

 months and released into the wild. To date, 

 12,837 hatchling Kemp's ridleys have been 

 headstarted from 1978 through the 1986 year class. 

 About 1,200 juveniles are now being raised from 

 the 1987 year class. Survival of these juveniles 

 until release into the wild has ranged from 67% 

 (1978) to nearly 99% (1986). 



Generally, multiple tags are applied to these 

 headstarted juveniles. In the early years only 

 monel tags were used. Since 1982, several tags 

 per turtle have been used. Monel tags (on the 

 flipper) , internal binary magnetic tags and living 

 tags all were used. Recently, inconel tags were 

 substituted for the monel tags. Of the 16,668 

 hatchlings received, 12,422 have been tagged and 

 released. 



A total of 537 or 4.3%, of these tagged turtles 

 has been recovered. Recovery of the individual 

 year classes ranged from a low of 1.6% for the 

 1979 class to 11.8% for 1982. In 1982, the 

 headstarted juveniles were released fairly close 

 to shore in sargassum weed. Many of these turtles 

 became coated with oil and died. 



Of the 537 recaptures, 353 were from Texas (which 

 is expected) , 66 from Louisiana, and 49 from 

 Florida. The remainder have been taken from a 

 number of areas, including the east coast to New 

 York, throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico and 

 Europe. Shrimp trawls account for 2 3.0% of the 

 recaptures, and dead beach strandings account for 

 24.8%. There is no information for 24.4% of the 

 recaptures, and the remainder have been recaptured 

 in a variety of ways. Recaptures are highest in 

 spring and decline with the progression of the 

 year. About 62% are recovered alive and released 

 back into the wild. 



Growth is estimated by an exponential curve (log 

 of weight [in grams] vs. age). The 1986 class 

 showed the fastest growth and the 1984 class the 

 slowest. Captive stocks are maintained for 

 several purposes. A breeding stock is housed at 

 the Cayman Turtle Farm. The oldest captive stock 

 is maintained at Sea Arama (Texas) . Using the 



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