Great Barrier Reef: Researchers count 64,000 green sea turtles

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A day trip to a Welsh beach turned out to be a pleasing surprise for one family who discovered the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. While strolling along Talacre beach in Clwyd, Ash and Samantha James spotted the turtle on the sand.

Usually found in the Gulf of Mexico, the family approached the turtle thinking it was dead.

Elated to find the species, the couple and their nine-year-old son Gethin nicknamed it Raphael.

The family then reported their find to the British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity.

Ms James, who lives in nearby Holywell, said: “Ash thought it was dead as it was motionless.

“It was astonishing to find such an amazing creature on our local beach.”

The turtle was found to be alive after the family informed the marine experts.

According to the specialists, it was in a state of cold-water shock and has been transferred to Anglesey Sea Zoo.

It will spend the next few months recovering there before being returned to the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts believe that it was pushed way off course by Atlantic storms, which affected the jetstream.

Ms James said: “We all have our fingers crossed that he survives.”

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, also called the Atlantic ridley sea turtle, is the rarest species of sea turtle and is the world’s most endangered species of sea turtle.

It is one of two living species in the genus Lepidochelys (the other one being L. olivacea, the olive ridley sea turtle).

The turtles are partly named after Richard Moore Kemp, a 19th-century amateur naturalist who helped discover and study them.

They are also the smallest of the sea turtles with an average length of the adults’ carapace between 58cm and 66cm and they can weigh between 32kg and 49kg.

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Their powerful jaws help them to crush and grind crabs, clams, mussels, and shrimp but they also like to eat fish, sea urchins, squid and jellyfish.

They build nests every one to three years in which they lay an average of 110 eggs which incubate for about 55 days.

Adults are mostly limited to the Gulf of Mexico but juveniles can be found up and down the east coast of the United States.

In the US they are listed as endangered and in danger of extinction within the near future with only an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 remaining in the wild.

Their greatest threat is from humans who collect their eggs and kill adults and juveniles for meat and other products.

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