| Summary: | "The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys kempi, is the most endangered of the sea turtles. Since 1978, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been participating in an international recovery program to save the Kemp's ridley from extinction. Cooperating in the Kemp's ridley recovery program are the Instituto Nacional de la Pesca (INP) and Secretaria de Desarollo Urbano y Ecologia (SEDUE) of Mexico, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the NMFS. Also assisting are the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the Gladys Porter Zoo, the Florida Department of Natural Resources (FDNR), the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and Texas A & M University. The goal of the program is to increase the population of Kemp's ridleys through pro- tection of the only known nesting aggregation near the village of Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas State, Mexico, and through establishment of a new nesting colony at Padre Island, near Corpus Christi, Texas. The program, initially planned for ten years, is now in its seventh year"--Introduction, paragraph 1
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