throughout all these years. Through the U.S. program of headstart 

 (impulso) and imprinting (nemotecnica) more than 10,000 small 

 juveniles have been released. Finally, efforts to decrease the 

 impact by incidental catch also have been carried out. 

 Nevertheless, we still lack control of waste products from oil 

 operations and increasing disposal of garbage, especially 

 plastics which may be contributing factors to reduced 

 populations. 



Distribution 



The reproduction of the Kemp's ridley takes place in a long, 

 straight sandy beach (Fig. 1) that has a low profile (1-4 m in 

 height) with two berms. The width of the beach that can be used 

 for nesting varies from 20 to 40 m. The area near the water is 

 more prone to inundation and farther away from the water, 

 predation increases. Parts of the beach are filled with 

 driftwood and garbage. In other parts, the tides accumulate 

 great quantities of disk-shaped pebbles, coraline in origin, 

 hampering the nesting, on occasions, throughout long stretches of 

 beach. This zone constitutes a sandy strip limited to the east 

 by the sea and to the west by other wetlands. Here sand dunes 

 are covered mainly by creeping plants, thorny bushes and spots of 

 mangrove. The beach becomes virtually isolated during the rainy 

 season, when reproduction of the turtles takes place (April to 

 September) (Chavez et al. 1967; Marquez 1976a, 1976b and in 

 prep.). This isolation partially reduces predation mainly from 

 coyotes and other mammals, which are abundant in the area. 



The nesting beach is located on the west shore of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, State of Tamaulipas, between Barra de Ostionales and 

 Barra del Tordo, (23° 24 '45" to 23° 03 '10" N and 97° 45 '40" to 97° 

 45 '30" W) . On this beach more than 90% of all nesting occurs 

 although on some occasions the turtles come onshore outside this 

 area, either to the north or to the south, (Marquez, WATS II 

 National Report) . From the time the hatchlings reach the sea 

 until they reach 20 cm mean carapace length, their location is 

 nearly unknown. The juveniles begin to be observed mainly in the 

 littoral, on the northeast coast of the United States, probably 

 dispersed to that area by the Gulf Stream (Pritchard 1969a; 

 Marquez, in prep.). Some have reached European waters, mainly 

 between October and February (Brongersma 1972, 1973) and even to 

 Morocco (Fontaine et al. 1985). When approaching maturity, the 

 subadults and older juveniles are believed to return to the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Historically, this size class was abundant to the 

 west of the Florida peninsula and was a part of the green turtle 

 fishery up to the 1950s (Carr and Caldwell 1956; Carr 1963). 



Apparently, the adults do not abandon the Gulf of Mexico and 

 after the nesting season they distribute to the north and south, 

 mainly to the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Banco de 



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