"Head starting is one of a number of potentially effective conservation and management tools that may help prevent extinction of the seriously endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys kempi. However, head starting's utility and effectiveness in conservation and management are unproven (Klima and McVey, 1981). Though seven year-classes (1978-1984) of Kemp's ridley have been head started at the National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Center's Galveston Laboratory, and 9,258 survivors have been tagged and released into the Gulf of Mexico, none of these animals has returned to nest so far as is known. Therefore, head starting is still experimental"--Foreword, paragraph 1.

Technical Memorandum