Historically, Kemp's ridley emerged by the tens of thousands to nest. It's called an "arribada" and this picture is from 1947 in Mexico.

For eons, ridleys survived because the turtles' predators could never eat ALL those millions of eggs and hatchlings--many were sure to hatch & survive

But humans collected their eggs by the millions for food and many adult turtles drowned by being accidentally caught in shrimp fishermen's nets.

Scientists worked with the local people to end the collection of eggs and brought some eggs to Texas to reestablish a nesting colony there.

The Texas turtles were kept in tanks like these for about a year so that they'd be better able to survive in the open sea.

Here's loggerhead sea turtle in a similar tank. These "headstarted" turtles were tagged and 1997 saw the first account of one nesting in Texas!!

As you can see, a shrimping net like this could easily trap and drown a turtle feeding along the bottom. We needed to solve this problem too!

Meet "TED," the Turtle Excluder Device! These help prevent turtle drownings.

Shrimp pass through the white metal grate but a turtle slides up and out! (see how in the next picture).

Here's the "turtle escape hatch!" People spoke out for turtles and a law now requires their use in the USA.

Decades ago, scientists started using flipper tags like this to study turtles. They proved that turtles returned to the beaches where they hatched.

Satellite technology now allows a new level of turtle tracking but they cost a LOT more. Lucas' '06-07 donations purchased this tracker for Tallulah!

Tallulah and this turtle were caught accidentally by fishermen. Scientists removed the hooks and got them all better. Now it's back to the sea!

Tallulah was released back into the sea on August 14. You can follow her journey since then at seaturtle.org!

128 nests were documented in Texas in 2007. Good luck, Tallulah--maybe you'll be part of a Texas arribada someday!!