The Olive Ridley Turtle is the smallest of the Australian sea turtles with a mean curved carapace length of approximately 70 cm and weight of 40 kg. It is characterised by more than five pairs of costal scales. Adults are olive-grey in colour and whitish below. The hatchlings are blackish brown and measure 4.1 cm in straight carapace length.
Olive Ridley Turtle, Pacific Ridley Turtle |
Lepidochelys olivacea
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
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Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Species Profile and Threats Database, Lepidochelys olivacea
However; changes to air and sea temperatures; sea level rise and other physical aspects that may change with climate change have the potential to alter the species occurrence (Hamann et al. 2007).
Threats Top Marine turtles face a number of threats associated with the following broad categories of human activity commercial and recreational fishing coastal infrastructure and development (including industrial; residential and tourism development) Indigenous harvest feral animal predation and climate change.
Climate Change and Extreme Events Changing termparatures and weather patterns associated with climate change are likely to have both direct physiological impacts on marine turtles; as well as indirect effects through impacts on critical turtle habitats (DEWHA in prep.).
Climate change may alter the temperature of nesting beaches; thereby affecting the male female ratio.
Climate change More effort should be placed on understanding patterns of nest site selection and how nesting sites may change under different climate regimes (Hamann et al. 2007) and on understanding the ecological roles of Olive Ridley Turtles and possible impacts of climate change to important diet species (Hamann et al. 2007).
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