Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and Sea Turtle Inc. partner each summer to conduct the South Texas Sea Turtle Nesting Project.  Through this project, interns, volunteers, and staff search for and protect nesting Kemp's ridley and other sea turtles and their nests on South Padre Island and Boca Chica beaches in southernmost Texas.

2008 has proven to be a record year for Kemp's ridley sea turtle nesting, with record numbers of nests found in the project area and in Texas, with several more weeks of the nesting season remaining.  In May 2008, twenty Kemp's ridley sea turtle nests were found, matching in one month, the total number of Kemp's ridley nests found in this same area for the entire 2007 nesting season.  Five of the twenty nests were found by visitors or beach workers and fifteen were found by patrollers.  The nesting turtle was documented at thirteen of the twenty nest sites.  Of those thirteen nesting turtles, six had been previous tagged and seven had no tags. 

Through the end of May 2008, a total of 31 sea turtle nests have been found and protected through this project.  Nests found through this project are relocated to a protective corral in a Cameron County, Texas park on South Padre Island.