Occurrence of Kemp's ridley sea turtle ( Lepidochelys kempii) in the Mediterranean

Origin and dispersal routes of foreign green and Kemp’s ridley turtles in Spanish Atlantic and Mediterranean waters

“…The remaining green turtle was an adult aged 21-22 years. The ages of the Kemp's ridley turtles were similar to the estimated for other records in the Mediterranean (Brongersma and Carr, 1983;Tomás et al, 2003;Oliver and Pigno, 2005;Insacco and Spadola, 2010).…”

“…The genetic results of one of the analysed Kemp's ridley turtles (Ebro Delta) matched previous findings (Tomás et al, 2003) that demonstrated the entrance of this species in the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar Straits. Furthermore, the use of genetic tools was essential for the species determination in the other case (Cadiz Bay).…”

“…2, table 3), a pattern that can be found in the olive ridley turtle (L. olivacea) (Pritchard and Mortimer, 1999). The Kemp's ridley from the Ebro Delta (East Spain) exhibited the haplotype D, as found in western Atlantic nesting beaches and in the other specimen found in the Spanish Mediterranean analyzed in a previous study (Tomás et al, 2003). The individual with unusual number of central and costal scutes exhibited a new haplotype that matched the 353 bp partial sequence of Kemp's ridley obtained from two hybrids born in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, and released in Galveston Island, Texas (Barber et al, 2003).…”

“…These fisheries are known to interact with the green and the Kemp's ridley sea turtles in other areas of the world (Hays et al, 2003;Lewison et al, 2003;National Marine Fisheries Service et al, 2011), and hence might be also affected by the same threats than the loggerheads, since all but one of the nine individuals arrived to the rescue centres as a consequence of interaction with human activities, like in other records (e.g. Tomás et al, 2003). Whether these animals would be able to return or not to the Atlantic populations of origin regardless of human interactions is a question that remains unanswered, but the other marine turtle species that use these foraging areas, the loggerhead turtle, is able to do this return migration (e.g.…”

“…As this species nests within the Mediterranean, the RMU comprising the eastern nesting areas have traditionally been suggested as the most likely origin for the green turtles found in Spanish waters (Pascual, 1985;Camiñas, 2002), but further research with this species has demonstrated a high dispersal capacity during the juvenile, pelagic stage (Monzon-Arguello et al, 2010) and thus the Atlantic RMUs (Wallace et al, 2010) cannot be discarded as putative origin for these records. In contrast, the presence of the Kemp's ridley turtle in Spanish waters has not been detected until recently, with a few records of juveniles (Fernández de la Cigoña, 1994;Pérea et al, 2001;Camiñas, 2002;Tomás et al, 2003;.…”