Tortugas

* http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/strategy.htm
* http://www.nps.gov/pais/naturescience/strp.htm
Conservation Efforts
Kemp's ridley turtles are protected by various international treaties and agreements. They are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which means that international trade of this speciesis prohibited. Kemp's ridleys are listed in Appendices I and II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS ). Kemp's ridleys are also protected under Annex II of the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW ) Protocol of the Cartagena Convention. Additionally, the U.S. is a party to the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC), which is the onlybinding international treaty dedicated exclusively to marine turtles.
In the U.S., NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have joint jurisdiction for marine turtles, with NMFS having the lead in the marine environment and USFWS having the lead on the nesting beaches. Both federal agencies, and a number of state agencies, have promulgatedregulations to eliminate or reduce threats to sea turtles. In the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, NMFS has required measures (e.g., gear modifications, changes to fishing practices, and time/area closures) to reduce sea turtle bycatch in mid-Atlantic gillnet, Chesapeake Bay pound net, and southeast shrimp and flounder trawl fisheries.
NMFS has worked closely with the shrimp trawl fishing industry todevelop turtle excluder devices (TEDs) to reduce the mortality of sea turtles incidentally captured in shrimp trawl gear. TEDs that are large enough to exclude even the largest sea turtles are now required in shrimp trawl nets. Since 1989, the U.S. has prohibited the importation of shrimp harvested in a manner that adversely affects sea turtles. The import ban does not apply to nations that have adoptedsea turtle protection programs comparable to that of the U.S. (e.g., require and enforce the use of TEDs) or to nations where incidental capture in shrimp fisheries does not present a threat to sea turtles (e.g., nations that fish for shrimp in areas where sea turtles do not occur). The U.S. Department of State (DOS) is the principal implementing agency of this law, while NMFS serves as technicaladvisor. NMFS has provided extensive TED training throughout the world.
In 2003, NMFS developed the Strategy for Sea Turtle Conservation and Recovery in Relation to Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fisheries (Strategy) to evaluate and address domestic sea turtle bycatch comprehensively across jurisdictional (i.e., state and Federal) and fishing sector (i.e., commercial and recreational) boundaries ona per-gear basis in fisheries of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
NMFS is currently involved in cooperative gear research projects designed to reduce sea turtle bycatch in the Atlantic sea scallop dredge fishery, the Chesapeake Bay pound net fishery, and non-shrimp trawl fisheries in the Atlantic and Gulf.
In 1991, NMFS and USFWS finalized the recovery plan for Kemp's ridleys in the U.S.Caribbean, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico. Since that time, a wealth of new information has been gained regarding Kemp's biology, distribution, and population status as well as threats to the species. Therefore, NMFS and USFWS have initiated a revision of the Kemp's ridley recovery plan for the U.S. Caribbean, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico. The joint draft revised recovery plan published in March 2010.The Mexican government has played a vital role in the conservation of the Kemp's ridley. The Kemp's ridley has benefited from legal protection by Mexico since the 1960s. In 1977, a refuge was established at the only known nesting beach and included the Rancho Nuevo nesting beach as part of a system of reserves for sea turtles. On May 28, 1990, a complete ban on taking any species of sea turtle was...