Ridleys rack up a record
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

A record number of endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles coming ashore to nest along the Padre Island National Seashore also heralds a record number of the turtles on Mus- tang Island.

Researchers on the National Seashore have tallied 120 ridleys already this year. Last year, 101 turtles came onto the beach to nest.

Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) director Tony Amos said while the sheer numbers of ridleys on Mustang Island aren't nearly as impressive, the percentage of increase is.

So far this year, four of the turtles have been spotted nesting. Last year, there was only one.

"I believe the increase on Mustang Island beaches is concomitant with the increase at the National Seashore," Amos said.

Of the four spotted this year, a volunteer "turtle patrol" from the ARK saw one of them, Amos said. Ironically, Amos - who directs the rescue, rehabilitation and release of wild animals at the ARK - has been out of town for all four.

While researchers from Texas A&M University-Galveston were tagging a loggerhead turtle and cementing a satellite transmitter to its back Monday at the ARK, beach visitors brought in a tiny ridley - the first hatchling found ashore this year, Amos said.

Like loggerheads, Kemp's ridley turtles and the also-endangered green sea turtles are tagged and satellite transmitters are mounted on their shells so researchers can track their movements.

Unlike loggerheads, greens and ridleys manage to keep their transmitters for months. Because the loggerhead's shell is so much rougher, epoxy cement tends to keep the transmitter attached for a much shorter time, Amos said.

A recent loggerhead was tracked for only eight days before it lost the transmitter, he said.

The loggerhead tagged and released Monday was one caught by a shark fisherman at Cole Park in Corpus Christi about two weeks ago. The turtle was hooked in the jaw; volunteers at the ARK rehabilitated it and returned it to the Gulf of Mexico.