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Marine Turtle Newsletter 5:2, © 1977

Notched Ridley Found

J.D. Lazell, Jr.
Massachusetts Audubon Society, Lincoln, Mass., 01773 G.S.A.

A 27 cm female ridley (Lepidochelys kempi) was found dead at Sesuit Harbor, Dennis, Barnstable Co., Massachusetts, U.S.A., on 13 November 1976, and salvaged by Bob Prescott, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. He passed it on to me, and it is now Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) A-89661. A rather fresh V notch had been sawed in marginal L 11 (third from tail). Sesuit is a standard ridley locality in Massachusetts waters; the specimen was very fresh, apparently in good shape, and seems to have been caught by an unseasonal cold spell, though mid-November is late for this species. Who shell-notches ridleys and where?