Padre Island National Seashore             

2006 Sea Turtle Nesting Season

The National Park Service conducts a program to detect, study, and protect nesting Kemp’s ridley sea turtles and sea turtle nests on North Padre Island, including Padre Island National Seashore.  This program is made possible due to funding from the federal government, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and a variety of partners and donors.  We patrol the beach to locate nesting turtles and nests, and conduct public education efforts to alert beach visitors to report nesting turtles that they see.

 Kemp’s ridley turtles nest on the Texas coast between April and mid-July.  Turtle patrollers typically locate about half of the Kemp’s ridley nests found on the Texas coast each year.  For the 2006 nesting season, Padre Island National Seashore staff and volunteers began daily patrols on April 2 and continued patrolling through July 15.  These patrols were conducted during daylight hours, from about 6:30 am until 6:00 pm, since Kemp’s ridley turtles nest mostly during the day. 

 Beach visitors locate the other Kemp’s ridley nests found in Texas.  Kemp’s ridleys often nest in groups called arribadas, so on days when one nest is found the chance of finding additional nests increases.  In an effort to alert the public about nesting and enlist their help in locating nests, a “nesting Kemp’s ridley alert” flag was flown on the Padre Island National Seashore Entrance Station and Malaquite Pavilion flagpoles each day that Kemp’s ridley nests are found on the Texas coast.  The rectangular flag has orange background and a black silhouette of a sea turtle. 

 When possible, we examined each nesting Kemp’s ridley found by patrollers or the public to determine whether she is from the experimental project to re-establish a nesting colony of Kemp’s ridley turtles in south Texas and whether she had nested and been tagged previously. 

 We attached satellite transmitters to the first three Kemp’s ridley turtles found nesting at Padre Island National Seashore this year.  Information from this research was used to predict where and when the turtles might nest again within this nesting season, to aid with nest detection efforts.  Data were also gathered on where the turtles go between and after nesting.  We also attached a satellite transmitter to an adult male that had been captured incidentally locally.  Maps of the movements of these four adult Kemp’s ridleys can be viewed at http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/ under the Padre Island National Seashore Kemp’s Ridley Project. 

 Staff and volunteers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Texas, Sea Turtle, Inc., Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and other entities also searched for nesting Kemp’s ridley turtles and their eggs on other Texas beaches and conducting associated efforts.

 Eggs from sea turtle nests found at Padre Island National Seashore and northward along the Texas coast were transported to our incubation facility for protected care and monitoring.  A new Sea Turtle Laboratory and incubation facility were constructed at the national seashore and greatly expand capabilities.  The hatchlings from the eggs were released at the northern end of Padre Island National Seashore when they emerged from their eggshells and become active.  The public is invited to attend many of the hatchling releases held at Padre Island National Seashore.  During 2006, 11 of the releases were open to the public, with over 2,000 people attending.  No more public hatchling releases will be held at Padre Island National Seashore during 2006 since all of the Kemp’s ridley eggs held in incubation have hatched. 

KEMP’S RIDLEY SEA TURTLE NESTS FOUND ON THE TEXAS COAST DURING 2006

Location Found                                          Number of Nests

Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS)                             64

South Padre Island                                                               12

Galveston Island                                                                     9

Boca Chica Beach                                                                   7

Matagorda Island                                                                   4

North Padre Island north of PAIS                                       3

Mustang Island                                                                       1

Surfside                                                                                    1

Total                                                                     101                                        

OTHER SEA TURTLE NESTS FOUND ON THE TEXAS COAST DURING 2006

Location Found                                             Number of Nests

Padre Island National Seashore                                    1 loggerhead

Padre Island National Seashore                                    2 green

South Padre Island                                                           1 loggerhead

Total                                                                          4         

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