The name Olive Ridley comes from the olive-green tint of its heart-shaped shell. Closely resembling Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, these two species are the smallest of all sea turtles. Among all sea turtle species, Olive Ridleys are the most abundant. They have an olive-green carapace with five to nine pairs of lateral scutes on the carapace and a greenish-yellow plastron. Each of their four flippers has one or two claws. Their diet is varied, consisting of crabs, jellyfish, clams, snails, and some algae.

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Olive Ridleys thrive in tropical and warm-temperate waters of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. They reach sexual maturity at around 14 years of age. Most females lay two to three clutches of eggs per year, every 1–2 years, with each clutch containing approximately 110 eggs. Despite their abundance, Olive Ridleys face numerous threats, including bycatch in fishing gear, direct harvesting of turtles and eggs, habitat loss and degradation, predation on eggs and hatchlings, vessel strikes, ocean pollution, and climate change.