Turtles
Olive Ridley Turtle
Lepidochelys olivacea · Marine reptile — family Cheloniidae
The olive ridley is the ocean's commonest sea turtle and one of its least seen by divers — a modest, round-shelled animal in gray-green that spends its life offshore rather than posing on reefs. Its fame rests on one of nature's numeric marvels: the arribadas of Ostional and Nancite in Costa Rica and Odisha in India, when a season's females arrive in coordinated waves and beaches vanish under nesting turtles. Underwater encounters are surface crossings — a small head raised mid-ocean, a pair drifting in the blue off Baja or the Revillagigedos. Sheer abundance hides real vulnerability; a species that concentrates itself so densely can be hurt at scale just as fast.
Waar en wanneer je er een kunt zien
"Resident" betekent dat je ze bij de meeste duiken op die bestemming tegenkomt; "seizoensgebonden" betekent betrouwbaar aanwezig in de vermelde maanden; al het andere is een bonus, geen garantie.
| Bestemming | Betrouwbaarheid | Maanden | Notities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica Pacific CoastCosta Rica | Seasonal — reliable in season | Aug–Nov | |
| Socorro & the RevillagigedosMexico | Occasional | Het hele jaar door | |
| Sea of Cortez & Cabo PulmoMexico | Occasional | Het hele jaar door |
Beste maand, in één oogopslag
Ze begrijpen
Habitat: Open tropical ocean and soft-bottom coastal shelves; not a reef turtle — most of its life passes offshore
Verspreidingsgebied: Pantropical, with enormous eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean populations; mass-nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Mexico, and India
Gedrag: Famous for the arribada — synchronized mass nesting in which tens of thousands of females storm a single beach over a few nights, a strategy that swamps predators. At sea it drifts and forages alone, often logging motionless at the surface far from land.
Dieet: Crustaceans, jellyfish, tunicates, and small invertebrates taken in open water and on soft bottoms
Grootte: doorgaans rond 0.65 m; gedocumenteerd tot 0.75 m (carapace length; the smallest sea turtle alongside its Kemp's ridley sister species).
Hoe je je ertegenover gedraagt
Arribada beaches are strictly managed — enter only with licensed guides under national park rules. At sea, give floating turtles space; they may be resting, mating, or accompanied by boats' propellers too often already.
Behoud
Vulnerable; regulated egg harvest at Ostional coexists with strict protection elsewhere, while trawl bycatch — answered by turtle excluder devices — and coastal development press the big rookeries.
Gekende duiksites waar je ze tegenkomt
Bekijk
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