Staff and visitors assist with Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchling release on South Padre Island, Texas.

The South Texas Sea Turtle Project, a cooperative conservation project to locate and protect nesting Kemp’s ridley and other sea turtles and their nests on South Padre Island and Boca Chica Beaches in southernmost Texas, continued in June.  Daily patrols are conducted by volunteers, interns, and staff from April through mid-July each year.  Eight Kemp’s ridley nests were found through this project in June, bringing the total sea turtle nests found in the area this year to 21 (18 on South Padre Island and 3 on Boca Chica Beach).  Nests were found on June 3^rd (1 nest), 7^th (2), 8^th (1), 19^th (2), 23^rd (1), and 27^th (1).  These nests contained 70 – 123 eggs each.  All 8 were Kemp’s ridley nests.  Six were found on South Padre Island and 2 were found on Boca Chica Beach.  Three of the nests were reported by visitors, 1 was found by a Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge intern, and 4 were found by Sea Turtle, Inc. interns and volunteers.  The nesting female turtle was seen at 3 of the sites and in all cases was a new female with no existing tags.  Each of these nesting females was measured, tagged, and released.  All of these nests were relocated to a protective corral on South Padre Island, where they will be monitored until they hatch.  The South Texas Sea Turtle Project is a cooperative conservation partnership between Sea Turtle, Inc., Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, and Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.