Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle

Lepidochelys kempii

Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) is the smallest and most critically endangered sea turtle in the world, with adults reaching only 60-70 cm in carapace length and weighing about 45 kg. Its nearly circular carapace is olive-grey to greenish, and the plastron (belly) is yellowish-white. This species is famous for its synchronized nesting behavior called an arribada, where thousands of females come ashore simultaneously on a single beach to lay eggs. The primary nesting site is Rancho Nuevo on the Gulf coast of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Kemp's ridley turtles feed primarily on crabs, particularly blue crabs, as well as jellyfish, sea urchins, and mollusks. They prefer shallow coastal waters with sandy or muddy bottoms. Once numbering in hundreds of thousands, the population crashed to fewer than 1,000 nesting females by the 1980s due to egg harvesting and incidental capture in fishing nets. Intensive conservation efforts have helped the population slowly recover. Divers may encounter them in the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, where they forage in coastal waters.