Sea turtles have roamed the oceans for millennia. But in the course of just a few decades, hunting, coastal development, fishing and pollution have driven their populations to dangerously low levels. Some, such as Kemp's ridley sea turtles, were beginning to make a comeback, thanks to efforts in Mexico and the United States to protect their nesting beaches and reduce accidental entrapment in shrimp nets.
And then along came the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill.
Marine biologists feared the spill would be catastrophic for sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico.
And for good reasons. Five of the world's seven species of sea turtles live in the Gulf, and the spill coincided with nesting season for two of those species, the loggerhead and Kemp's ridley sea turtles. For the Kemp's ridley, the Gulf is the only known nesting ground.
For many living in the Gulf and around the country, these charismatic animals became the public face of the impact of the oil spill on wildlife. An extraordinary effort was needed to save as many sea turtles as possible.
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