Ridley kanso1/10/2024 ![]() Many species of sea turtles gather around the Chandeleur Islands, feeding in and around the state’s only marine seagrass meadows, the news release said. Juvenile Kemp’s ridleys feed in Louisiana’s estuaries. “Occasional nesting has been documented in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama,” according to its website about the species. Most Kemp’s ridley nests are along the western Gulf of Mexico, 95% of them in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, according to NOAA. The discovery of nesting sea turtles will help ensure sea turtle nesting habitat is preserved and improved, officials said. The two agencies have been closely monitoring the islands since May as part of work to restore the islands using oil spill money. Loggerhead nests found in 2015 on Grand Isle - roughly 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of the Chandeleurs - were the first confirmed sea turtle nests in Louisiana in more than 30 years, according to the statement. The Louisiana agencies said threatened loggerhead sea turtles also are nesting on the Chandeleurs, which are part of the nation’s second-oldest national wildlife refuge, called Breton National Wildlife Refuge. “The endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle has returned to nest on the Chandeleur Islands, highlighting the need to protect this sensitive habitat so it can continue to be home to ocean and coastal wildlife in the future,” said Beth Lowell, vice president for the United States of the environmental nonprofit Oceana. Some were “false crawls” where no nest was made. Weigel said aerial surveys found 52 sets of tracks, some of which experts identified as Kemp’s ridley, others as loggerhead sea turtles. There, they found two tiny, newly emerged turtles, which they followed back to the beach. They followed those tracks back to a nest they hadn’t known about. “There was some high-fiving going on,” he said. Weigel said he and Todd Baker of the restoration agency were walking between two that they’d sighted from the plane on July 29 when they stumbled on hatchling tracks on the beach. After that crew brought back a photo of a sea turtle “crawl,” the two agencies began weekly flights over the island to look for more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |