 they try to reach the ocean for the first time.
Conservation status: “Critically endangered.”
Unfortunately, it is a species classified as critically endangered on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to the loss of habitat, illegal trade of eggs and meat for human consumption, climate change and bycatch with fishing nets.
Bycatch is one of the causes that produces the highest mortality rate; Trawling nets trap them incidentally, and when returned to the sea, they are severely injured or almost dying. The shrimp industry is probably the one that has the largest death toll, although they keep working with the governments of U.S. and Mexico to adopt new fishing equipment that dramatically reduces such mortality.
Choking by eating garbage left by irresponsible people is another serious problem. Bags and plastic objects are confused with jellyfish by the turtles, and these materials are often found in the stomachs of dead sea turtles.
As if all before was not enough, this species has been severely affected by several oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, as the currents and the closed shape of the Gulf take the oil to most of their nesting beaches.
Pamela T. Plotkin. Biology and Conservation of Ridley Sea Turtles. JHU Press, 2007.
Peter L. Lutz, John A. Musick, Jeanette Wyneken. The Biology of Sea Turtles, Volume 2. CRC Press, 2002.