by Mark MacAllister
On 9 June 2010, a Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) nested near Corolla on North Carolina's Outer Banks. This is only the third Kemp's ridley nest recorded in North Carolina, according to Matthew Godfrey at North Carolina's Wildlife Reources Commission. The two other nests were at Oak Island (1992) and on Cape Lookout National Seashore (2003). Godfrey also noted that Kemp's ridley nests are normally found only in Texas—particularly in the Padre Island region in the Gulf of Mexico—and south of that region in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas (see Kemp's Ridley Nests in Mexico for more information). As well, a few nests have also been documented in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
Kemp's ridley turtles are critically endangered, though they have been making a comeback in recent years. For example, only 700 Kemp's nests were recorded in Tamaulipas in 1985. That number increased to more than 20,000 in 2009. Likewise, Kemp's nests in Texas numbered 200 in 2009, up from less than 20 each year in the 1990s.
Jackie Orsulak, a long-time FieldTripEarth contributor and volunteer at the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (NEST), is working on an in-depth article about this and other nesting events on the Outer Banks. We'll publish that information as soon as it is available.
About the author:Mark MacAllister is the Project Coordinator for Field Trip Earth.
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