Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests 1st in 75 years in Louisiana

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtle has hatched in Louisiana’s wilds for the first known time in 75 years. Louisiana agencies say crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests, and of hatchlings leaving nests. A news release from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries included photos of two hatchlings crawling toward and swimming in the water. The statement says threatened loggerhead sea turtles also are nesting on the islands. It says loggerhead nests found on Grand Isle in 2015 were the first confirmed sea turtle nests in Louisiana in more than 30 years.