Rushikulya: olive ridley turtles

Rushikulya: olive ridley turtles

• Preparations are almost done at the Rushikulya rookery on the Odisha coast to welcome and protect olive ridley turtles during mass nesting, likely to begin in a week.
• Eggs from sporadic nesting that has been going on for the past two months, which were incubated at artificial hatcheries of the forest department, have also started to hatch, said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer Amlan Nayak. 
• According to sources, till now around 23 turtles have laid over 2,400 eggs through sporadic nesting.
• To provide security to mother turtles as well as the eggs from human and predator intervention, the forest department is erecting an over 5­km­long fence of the metal net from Gokharkuda to Bateswar. This stretch is the most preferred location for mass nesting in the Rushikulya rookery. 
• The forest officials have already completed two to three rounds of awareness drive at all villages near the rookery. 
• Thousands of mother turtles are waiting in the sea near the coast where fishing in mechanized boats, including trawlers, has been banned. The forest department officials are also patrolling the region in two trawlers, two-speed boats, and a country boat.
• The whole stretch of the nesting beach has been cleaned four times in February.  Debris and plastic waste, like pieces of fishing net, are being removed with the help of locals. There will be regular monitoring of the beach.
• The department has set up 11 onshore camps. Personnel at these camps regularly document beach conditions, inform about the debris deposited by the sea, prevent the entry of predators like stray dogs and search for turtle carcasses.  Officials from all ranges of the  department have been mobilized

Olive ridley sea turtle

• The olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. Lepidochelys olivacea is found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but also in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean
• This turtle and the related Kemps ridley turtle are best known for their unique mass nesting called arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.

Source: The Hindu