Kemp's Ridley: Critically Endangered

Sunday, 7 April
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 49F / Hi 75F (9C / 24C)

(This post is about something that we experienced earlier in our stay at Buccaneer. I was
going to include it in the Stormy Day post, but felt that it deserved to be written separately.

We’ve been doing quite a bit of walking on the beach since arriving at Buccaneer State Park.  Both on these beaches, and on other beaches as well, we’ve come across our share of dead critters washed ashore by the surf.  Each has saddened us, of course — especially when the death of the animal was a result of something over which we, as humans, have control.

Our saddest such encounter to date was today when we came across a dead Kemp’s Ridley stranded on the beach.  Also known as the Atlantic Ridley, this critically endangered species of sea turtle is one of the rarest in the world and relies on the Gulf region as its sole breeding ground.

Hopes that the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle stranded on the beach was …

… alive were dashed as soon as I got a close look at it.

Doing some research after our encounter, I found a website that has compiled data about the strandings of sea turtles in the northern Gulf of Mexico.  The statistics are broken out by state (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) and by species of turtle.  By far the largest number of strandings in 2012 were of Kemp’s Ridleys — 352 out of 444.  And by far the largest percentage of the Kemp’s Ridley strandings for that year were in Mississippi — nearly 43%.  These numbers are better than what they were in 2011, but I found them to be alarming nonetheless.

RIP

The website continues on to say that the increase in strandings may be related to:

• fishing activities that may result in turtle bycatch and mortality
• biotoxins, such as harmful algal blooms, which can occur in the Gulf of Mexico
• possible impacts from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Studies are underway to better pinpoint the reason(s) for the strandings, but on the topic of the last bullet point, a sentence in the Wikipedia article on Kemp’s Ridleys states that “… 10 days after the accident on the Deepwater Horizon, 156 sea turtle deaths were recorded; most were Kemp’s ridleys.”  There was no source quoted, so how true this is, I cannot say.  But there is a distinct possibility that the numbers could have indeed been in that range.

No words needed!

Yes, efforts are underway to protect this critically endangered species … we can do our share by reducing — as much as we can — the pollutants going into the environment.  Mui and I were dismayed to learn that there was no recycling program at Buccaneer State Park.  When we queried this at the park office, they told us that there used to be a program before the park was devastated by storms.  They made a note to look into bringing it back.  Will anything come of it?  I can’t say.  But if the program is reinstated, and if we’ve played even a miniscule part in it happening, we will be happy campers!

P.S. Using a link I found on the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center website (which I linked to above), I reported our encounter to the local STSSN (Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network) state coordinator in case no one else had.  Doesn’t do the dead turtle any good; but it makes me feel a bit better to have done something so that it’s death does not go unnoticed.