From Saving Species: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles
Every summer, Padre Island National Seashore's turtle team inventories Kemp's ridley sea turtle nests in the park's sandy beaches along the
Gulf of Mexico. The eggs are carefully dug up and incubated at a park lab away from human disruptions and natural predators. Under the watchful
eye of Donna Shaver, Ph. D., chief of sea turtle science and recovery, thousands of turtle babies are hatched and released, often cheered on by
doring crowds as they make their slow crawl to the sea. After five years of record nesting, Shaver says the park's plan to restore the endangered
Kemp's ridley is working: turtles hatched from eggs transplanted from Mexico, as part of an international recovery effort and released 10-15 years
ago are coming back to the park to lay their own eggs. They are even being joined by "wild stock"—turtles that were not hatched as part of the
recovery efforts-making Padre Island National Seashore the most prolific Kemp's ridley nesting beach in the U. S.
(from "Saving Species: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles by the U. S. National Park Service)
What does the word prolific indicate about the beach described in the passage?
1. It is a home to powerful ocean conditions.
2. It is a place where primitive species are studied.
3. It is a productive site for increasing sea turtle populations,
4. It is a popular destination for tourists to observe sea turtles.