The Olive Ridley Turtles

Dead Olive ridley turtle on the shores of Pondicherry

The Olive ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. Because of their olive colored carapace they get the name.They are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada(Meaning arrival in Spanish).This unique behaviour where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs increases their offspring's chances of survival.They are carnivores and feed on shrimp, snails, crabs,fishes and their eggs.
Reason for increase in the number of deaths:
Though turtles spend their entire live in the ocean they would come up every 40-45 minutes as they are air breathing reptiles and when they are entangled in trawl nets, they are dragged for over 1 to 3 hours without air which may result in their death or they are beaten to death with heavy objects or the flippers are chopped off to remove them from the nets.Government has issued various guidelines to the fishers to save these turtles and also to use Turtle Excluder Devices , a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the fish catch.

The Olive ridley turtles which are endemic to India ,Cental America and the Pacific coasts hopefully maybe protected because of the efforts of various NGOs working towards saving them.