Caring for an endangered visitor

Context

• The olive Ridley Turtle has started nesting at the eastern coast.

Key points

• There are about six sporadic Olive Ridley nesting spots along the coast of Visakhapatnam district from Pudimadaka in the south to Bheemunipatnam in the east.
• Gahirmatha or Rushikulya are the mass nesting centres and turtles there come in thousands.
• They generally look for white beaches with a slope or gradient and that is how the beaches along the Visakhapatnam coast provide them a natural setting.
• Their mating time is 40 to 45 days and thereafter the males go back to their habitat, while females come for nesting.
• The mature females go back to their living area after the nesting period.
• The Nesting period is generally from November to March, and the peak being from January to February-end.
• The mature female turtles come to the shore during high tide and lay the eggs.
• Each turtle lays 100 to 150 eggs and 80 to 90 of them hatch successfully. But the survival rate for the hatchlings at sea is said to be 1 out of every 1,000.

Where is there habitat?

• The Olive Ridley turtles have their habitat in the Southern Atlantic, Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean.
• Olive ridleys are found only in warmer waters.
• They are migratory species and their breeding area and living area are different.

Olive Ridley turtles

• The olive ridley sea turtleis also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle.
• They are currently the most abundant of all sea turtles.
• Oliveridleys are the smallest of the sea turtles.
• They are recognized as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.

Why they are vulnerable?

• Their vulnerable status comes from the fact that they nest in a very small number of places, and therefore any disturbance to even one nest beach could have huge repercussions on the entire population.