Kemp's Ridley Turtle Facts
- They have powerful jaws that help them to crush and grind crabs, clams, mussels, and shrimp. They also like to eat fish, sea urchins, squid and jellyfish.
- They prefer shallow areas with sandy and muddy bottoms.
- Adults weigh between 70 and 108 pounds.
- Kemp's ridley sea turtle, or Atlantic ridley sea turtle is the rarest sea turtle and is critically endangered.
Why They Are Endangered
The greatest threat to the Kemp's ridley is from human use activities including collection of eggs and killing adults and juveniles for meat and other products. The significant decline in the number of Kemp's ridley nests was a result of high levels of incidental take by shrimp trawlers. Nests of the Kemp's ridley are shallow and poorly disguised, making them relatively easy for human and non-human predators to find. Animals such as coyotes, skunks, and racoons predate the nests, and ghost crabs, gulls, and other sea birds prey on the hatchlings. In addition, this species is locally threatened by pollution.
What People Can do to Prevent This Problem
If people would stop collecting their eggs and and killing the adults for their meat then the population would be much higher. Also, their nests aren't very well hidden so they are very easy to find and so people can easily take them. Another thing is that when the eggs hatch and they are headed off to the sea, they are very easy to spot and so birds, crabs, and other animals can easily eat them.