Another Kemp's Ridley

Another Kemp's Ridley was found on North Myrtle Beach.  This poor guy stranded just south of the Cherry Grove Pier, around 33rd Ave N.

Volunteers from the North Myrtle Beach Sea Turtle Patrol came across the turtle as they started their walk around 5:30 AM this morning.

The carapace of this small juvenile was just over 13 inches inches long

Turtle seemed to be in good shape, clean of barnacles and other parasites.  No obvious wounds.  Only problem noted was the fishing line wrapped around it's left rear flipper.  Whether this contributed to it's death or occurred as it was floating in the surf is unknown.

Look closely and you can see a strand of fishing line running up across it's plastron and wrapped once around it's right front flipper.

Measurements are taken, pictures taken and data recorded in the SeaTurtle.org stranding data base.

Remains of turtle are painted orange to signify that the turtle's information has already been recorded.

Poor guy.  We'd rather see nests or turtle crawls than this.  We need these turtles to reach maturity.

Thank you Brenda and Darlene for reporting this poor guy.