Sea turtles in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Paso Pacifico Board Member Rick Smith just forwarded the latest article from the National Parks Traveler:

Creature Feature: The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Faces an Uncertain Future

The Kemp's ridley may be little as sea turtles go, but its got big problems. It was already the world's most endangered marine turtle before the mammoth Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatened to wreak havoc on its vital habitat.

These are perilous times for the Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempi). Having been reduced to a small fraction of its historic population, and now assailed by the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the slowly recovering L. kempi population remains too close to extinction for comfort. Much will depend on continuing efforts to save it. It's the most sweeping campaign yet mounted in behalf of a marine turtle species.
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All of this is certainly not to say that the Kemp's ridley is doomed. In fact, things have been looking up for the species. Over 6,000 nests were counted in 2000, and while that's nowhere near the 40,000+ of the historic arribadas, it's 30 times the number recorded in the 1970s and 1980s. The total population of mature Kemp's ridleys is now thought to be in the neighborhood of 8,000. Full recovery is no longer just a dim prospect.