The female covers the nest with san

The female covers the nest with sand using her hind flippers. Burying the eggs serves three purposes: it helps protect the eggs from surface predators; it helps keep the soft, porous shells moist, thus protecting them from drying out; and it helps the eggs maintain proper temperature. Experts can identify the species of turtle by the type of mound left by the nesting female and by her flipper tracks in the sand.
Females may spend two or more hours out of the water during the entire nesting process.
It is possible that through the storage of sperm from one or several males in the oviducts of the females, all clutches of the current nesting season may be fertilized without repeated mating.
Female Kemp's ridley and olive ridley sea turtles form masses called arribadas (Spanish for "arrival"). Arribadas contain thousands of egg-bearing females that come ashore at the same time to lay eggs.
Most females return to the same beach where they hatched to nest each year.
Recent studies suggest that some females of some species will visit more than one nesting beach (other than the original beach) in a season.
Females usually lay between one and nine clutches (groups) of eggs per season.
Females may nest every two or three years.