Photos

Beginning in 1978, the Galveston NOAA laboratory began a joint effort with Mexican biologists to save the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. Transferring eggs to the Galveston lab to be hatched, the turtles were then released or reared in the headstart program. Since turtles require 11-16 years to mature, results were not evident until the 1990s, when turtles nesting on Rancho Nuevo Beach in Mexico began to slowly increase their numbers. What had been 300 nests in 1980 grew to 550 in 1990 and then to 1200 in 2000.