Sea Turtles’ Human Allies

Prescott and the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary started saving cold-stunned turtles in 1982, a time when the Kemp’s ridley turtle was on the brink of extinction. It’s the smallest marine turtle of the seven species worldwide, with adults generally weighing about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and reaching a length of between 2 to 2.3 feet (60 to 70 centimeters). It is also the only sea turtle with an almost circular upper shell. Kemp’s ridley turtles are found primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, but they can also be found in the Atlantic Ocean as far north as Nova Scotia.

Over the last few decades though, the turtle has been in trouble. The worldwide annual nesting population nose-dived from 40,000 females in the 1940s to less than 300 females in the mid-1980s, according to the National Park Service. When Kemp’s ridley sea turtles started appearing cold-stunned in Cape Cod Bay, Prescott knew it was crucial to act.

“It really came down to [the fact that] every single individual was important,” Prescott said. “We think about 70% of the turtles that we see here on the Cape are females. We needed to save those turtles and make sure they got back into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Although Prescott and his team mainly save ridley sea turtles, they also find and rescue loggerhead turtles and green turtles. When the organization started the program in the 1980s, Prescott said it rescued between 10 and 20 turtles per year, but now it averages about 600 turtles a year. As of today, the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle remains the most endangered sea turtle in the world.