Satyasundar Barik BHUBANESWAR: Will the spectacular sight of mass congregation of endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles for mating and nesting on the beaches of Gahirmatha become history? The beaches coming under the Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary have shrunk considerably. A 32-km-long beach has shrunk to less than one kilometre in the past 35 years. Gahirmatha is one of the first rookeries of turtles discovered along the Orissa coast. A group of researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India and the Orissa Forest Department noticed the trend while studying the offshore distribution and migration pattern of Olive Ridleys along the country's east coast. While presenting the outcome of the study spanning from 2007 to 2010 here recently, B. C. Choudhury, WII scientist and principal investigator of the study, said: