Dearl Adams & Project Ridley Collection

Collection consists chiefly of 35 mm slide collection documenting Dearl Adams efforts to establish a rookery for the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle on South Padre Island. Images show turtles at different life cycle stages, including nests, eggs, hatchlings, adolescents and adults.

Dearl Adams and his family (brother Thearl and wife Ethel) were citizen conservationists from Brownsville, Texas. The Adames led efforts to gather eggs from the sole Kemp's ridley sea turtle rookery in Playa Rancho Nuevo, Mexico and relocate them to new nesting grounds on South Padre Island. Dearl and Ethel Adams along with their children and Ila Loetscher would drive six hours to Playa Rancho Nuevo and back. They would plant eggs on the beach on South Padre Island and guard them until they hatched (50–60 days) and made their way to the waters of the Gulf.