Rare Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles Nest on St. Johns County Beaches in Record Numbers
St. Johns County’s 2024 sea turtle nesting season included an exciting milestone: the presence of four rare Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests on our beaches. The Office of Public Affairs made a video celebrating this new record.
The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) is the rarest and most endangered species of sea turtle in the world. It is also the smallest, reaching no more than 32 inches in length and 100 pounds in weight, and is the only sea turtle species that nests primarily during the day. This daytime nesting behavior allowed Beach Services to spot one of the four that nested in St. Johns County, taking a video of a female arriving at St. Augustine Beach on May 9.
Ashley Raybould, environmental supervisor of St. Johns County Beach Services’ Habitat Conservation Program, explained that the appearance of these tiny turtles in our backyard is a positive sign for long-term conservation efforts.
“Back in the 1940s, about 40,000 Kemp’s ridley nests were documented on one beach in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, and that was their only known nesting habitat back then,” Raybould said.
After decades of poaching, bycatch in commercial fishing, and other threats, mere hundreds of the turtles were seen by the 1970s. State and federal partners took steps to preserve the species, including moving nests from Mexico to Texas beaches to increase the Kemp’s ridleys’ range of breeding habitats.
“We’re starting to see that habitat flourish, but also a little bit of range expansion, perhaps, to the beaches in Florida, and even up farther on the East Coast,” Raybould said.
The first Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nest recorded in St. Johns County was in 2015, and only a few more sporadic nestings have been recorded between then and 2024.
Raybould emphasized that the Kemp’s ridleys’ rarity and daytime nesting behavior makes it even more important to give them plenty of space and observe from a distance if you spot them once nesting season rolls around again.