Marine Turtle Newsletter 63:4-5, © 1993
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Marine Turtle Newsletter 63:4-5, © 1993
Thirteen adult Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) were found stranded dead at Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, the species' only rookery, by personnel from the three Mexico-U.S. joint project camps. During the past 15 years, only 0-2 turtles have been found dead on the beach throughout any one breeding season. All of the recorded stranded turtles, 11 females and two males, died in April and early May 1993. This was a time of heavy shrimping activity, both within and adjacent to the Kemp's Ridley Turtle Reserve. Some 30 boats, ostensibly from Tampico, were shrimping in the region, with 12-15 boats visible night and day from the camps. Despite the critical importance of this area to the severely endangered Kemp's ridley, there is apparently no at-sea vigilance or enforcement of the fishing ban within Reserve boundaries at Rancho Nuevo.
The sudden increase in stranded dead turtles coincided with much greater trawling efforts than seen during previous Kemp's ridley breeding seasons. The circumstantial evidence linking these deaths and incidental capture in shrimp trawls was straightforward, although a U.S. Embassy Official was told the strandings were fewer and may have been caused by "cancer". We do not know how many more turtles may have died, but did not wash ashore. Beginning this year, shrimp trawlers were required by the Government of Mexico to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in the Gulf of Mexico and there has been a long-standing ban on trawling within the Kemp's Ridley Turtle Reserve, extending four nautical miles from shore, during the nesting season. Shrimping in the Reserve has been reported before, although the numbers of vessels seen this season have not been reported during the 15 years of the bi-national nesting beach protection project (Richard Byles, USFWS, pers. comm.). Fishing within the Reserve is noted as a problem in a recently published recovery plan for the species (USFWS/NMFS, 1992). The recovery plan listed expansion of the Reserve and enforcement of the fishing ban within the Reserve as essential for the recovery of the Kemp's ridley.
The commendable joint effort between the Instituto Nacional de Pesca and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is releasing a maximum number of hatchlings to the sea in order to recover the population from the brink of extinction. The population of adult female ridleys is estimated to be fewer than 500 nesting per year. It is self-evident that ongoing efforts on the nesting beach will be for naught in the absence of protection for these animals while they are at sea. The cessation of trawling in the Reserve off the nesting beach is central to the survival of the Kemp's ridley. In light of the ban on trawling within the Reserve, boat captains from Tampico and elsewhere should be confident that they will be boarded if they are in the Reserve. And a further issue is TED enforcement outside the Reserve. If legal shrimpers are correctly using the TEDs and have a reasonable expectation of being examined by authorities, then virtually no turtles will drown in shrimp trawls and never again will such a tragic number of reproductively capable adults wash ashore dead at Rancho Nuevo. KLE/SAE.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service. 1992. Recovery Plan for the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle, Lepidochelys kempii. National Marine Fisheries Service, St. Petersburg, Florida. 40 p.