Olive Ridley turtles nesting season begins

Context

• Though January to May is the nesting season for Olive Ridley turtles, a group of forest officials and turtle watchers collected the first batch of eggs.

What is all about the Olive Ridley turtles?

• The Olive Ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world.
• They inhabit the warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• These turtlesare best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.
• They are carnivores, and feed mainly on jellyfish, shrimp, snails, crabs, molluscs and a variety of fish and their eggs.
• These turtles spend their entire lives in the ocean, and migrate thousands of kilometers between feeding and mating grounds in the course of a year.
  
  

What is the ecological status?

• The species is recognized as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.
• Their products is banned under CITES Appendix I.

Where they nest in India?

• The coast of Orissa in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-Ridley. These are the five major sites where they are found;
• Gahirmatha Beach, Odisha
• Rushikulya River Mouth, Odisha
• Devi River Mouth, Odisha
• Marina Beach, Chennai
• Velas Beach, Ratnagiri

What are the major threats?

• Olive-ridleys face serious threats across their migratory route, habitat and nesting beaches, due to human activities such as turtle unfriendly fishing practices, development and exploitation of nesting beaches for ports, and tourist centres.
• The most severe threat they face is the accidental killing of adult turtles through entanglement in trawl nets and gill nets due to uncontrolled fishing.