HiguInfo- Home of Sea Turtles

Distribution

The olive ridley turtle is globally distributed, mainly occurring in tropical waters, with distribution ranging from 35°N to 30°S latitude.

Description

Olive ridley’s appearance is that of a typical sea turtle, with a pale green carapace that is slightly heart-shaped. The central scutes on the carapace are smalI, flanked by 6 or more pairs of costal scutes. There is a pore on each of the last four pairs of costal scutes, with unknown function. It takes a juvenile olive ridley 12 to 30 years to reach sexual maturity. A matured adult weigh approximately 100 kg, with carapace 62-72 cm in length.

Ecology

While hatchlings live a pelagic life, taking shelter in floating algal mats or other drift materials, juveniles and adults live in coastal waters. The olive ridleys are omnivorous, but they mainly feed on fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and other benthic invertebrates. Though they’re widely distributed, they only nest on tropical beaches. Their nesting habit is one of the most extraordinary. Vast numbers of olive ridley turtles come ashore simultaneously to nest in the daytime, the behavior known as an “arribada”.

Major Threats

The olive ridley is considered the most abundant sea turtle in the world, but they’re still listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN primarily due to bycatch in fisheries and direct harvest of turtles and eggs. In recent years, construction projects in Orissa coast, India is under hot debate, as it is one of the main nesting beaches in the world where arribadas occur.