Marine Living

At nesting time, olive ridley turtles gather in large groups offshore of their nesting grounds, then come ashore in arribadas (which means "arrival" in Spanish), sometimes by the thousands. It is unknown what triggers these arribadas, but possible triggers are phermones, lunar cycles, or winds. Although many olive ridleys nest in arribadas (some beaches host 500,000 turtles), some olive ridleys nest singly, or may alternate between solitary and arribada nesting.

Olive ridleys will lay 2-3 clutches of about 110 eggs each. They nest every 1-2 years, and may nest during night or day. The nests of these small turtles are shallow, making the eggs especially vulnerable to predators.

In Ostional, Costa Rica, a limited legal harvest of eggs has been allowed since 1987 to satisfy demand for eggs and economic development, in a supposedly controlled manner. Eggs are allowed to be taken during the first 36 hours of an arribada, then volunteers monitor the remaining nests and maintain the nesting beach to assure continued nesting success. Some say this has decreased poaching and helped turtles, other say that there isn't enough reliable data to prove that theory.

Hatchlings emerge from eggs after 50-60 days and weigh .6 oz at when they hatch. Thousands of hatchlings may go to sea at once, which may have the effect of confusing predators so that more hatchlings survive.

Not much is known about the early live of olive ridleys, but it is believed that they mature in 11-16 years.

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