NEWS
RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE (Contact Carole Allen, 281-444-0564)
July 12, 2008
Sea
turtles make history on the Texas coast!
The nesting season for the
endangered Kemp’s ridley is over. A remarkable total of 192 nests were found
along the Texas
coast compared to
128 in
2007. This is the fifth consecutive year for nesting increases.
Nests were found from Boca
Chica
Beach
near the Mexican border to Bolivar
Peninsula
and beaches in between. The first leatherback nest in 30 years was found as
well as a loggerhead nest on the Padre Island National Seashore where 91 of the
192 ridley nests were documented. Three green turtle nests were also found this
year. The public is invited to witness the release of Kemp’s ridley hatchlings
at the Padre Island National Seashore. Anyone interested can call 361-949-7163
for dates of the public releases.
The Kemp’s ridleys, near extinction
in 1985, have been the focus of a 30 year international conservation program
with the Republic
of
Mexico
and the United
States
involved. From 1978 to 1988, eggs
from the primary Mexican nesting site were incubated at the Padre Island
National Seashore with hatchlings transferred to the National Marine Fisheries
Service facility at Galveston
. They
were raised for almost a year until 1993 and then released. Although Turtle
Excluder Devices (TED) to allow sea turtles to escape drowning in shrimp trawls
were not mandatory until 1990 in
U.S. waters, many of the “head started) turtles survived and are nesting on
both U.S. and Mexican beaches.
The state and federal closure
prohibiting all shrimping will end July 15 at sundown. The
closure allows brown shrimp to
reach a more valuable size before harvest. This closure also benefits sea
turtles that are at risk because of shrimpers who fish illegally without TEDs
or use them improperly. Both state and federal law enforcement including the
Coast Guard board shrimp boats to find lawbreakers.
Although nesting turtles may not be
found, anyone who sees hatchlings on a Texas
beach should immediately call 1-866-TURTLE-5 and protect the hatchlings as they
make their way to the water.
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