Endangered sea turtle babies get a head start at Estrella del Mar

Environmental groups around the world are working hard to educate the public about the plight of the sea turtles, and the good news is that things are changing for the better.

Many factors contribute to their diminishing numbers, including tourist-laden beaches reducing nesting areas, fishing trawlers inadvertently catching them in their nets and even the demand for turtle soup. Turtle eggs have long been a Mexican delicacy and poaching has also contributed to the problem. Seven of the eight endangered sea turtle species can be found in Mexico, and in the waters around Mazatlán, the Olive Ridley Turtle and the Leatherback are the most common.

One group here is directly involved in these efforts. Since 1998, the Turtle Sanctuary at Estrella del Mar on Stone Island has had tremendous success recovering and incubating eggs and releasing thousands of turtle hatchlings. Under the direction of Marine Biologist Erendira Gonzalez, the Sanctuary also hosts educational programs for local schoolchildren on its 5.6 hectares of natural turtle habitat.

Turtle moms travel in the summer, swimming hundreds of kilometers back to the beach of their own birth. There, usually in the dark of night, they use their giant flippers to dig a nest in the sand and deposit their eggs. Once done, they waddle back to the ocean, leaving the eggs and hatchlings to survive or not. “Turtle moms” are not what you’d call doting parents.

This is where Erendira and her volunteers come in. They become “surrogate moms,” searching the beaches day and night to find signs of new nests, then caring for the eggs and eventually the hatchlings. The most frequent sign are the belly and flipper marks left in the sand by Mom during her departure. The eggs, which look like very white ping-pong balls but much heavier, are gingerly removed from the sand, placed in containers filled with the same sand as was in the nest and transported back to the incubation room.

The incubation period is 45 days. Under natural conditions after hatching, the babies head straight from the nest to the safety of the ocean. They do their best to go as quickly as they can, but after all, they’re turtles, and as they scurry to the ocean, they’re at the mercy of many predators, including dogs, cats, gulls and other birds. The same holds true in the water for the first few days of their little lives. At the Sanctuary, the babies are given a couple of get-acquainted-with-the-world days before they’re set free on the beach where they were born. The females who survive will return to that beach at some point in the future to lay their own eggs.

Since the Sanctuary’s inception to the final reporting of 2008, it has hatched 125,263 eggs and set free 83,866 babies. Schoolchildren have been a big part of the releases. They meet in groups with the staff, learn about the importance of saving the species and then help set the babies free on the beach. It’s a life lesson they’ll carry with them always.

Erendira invites everyone to come to the Turtle Sanctuary at Estrella del Mar to see the facility and the work they do. May be you’ll get lucky and be there for a release of the little guys.

Estrella del Mar is located 10 km. from the airport on Stone Island. Call 915-8300 to make an appointment. Because of the work they do at night, staff are more available in the afternoons. Info: www.estrelladelmar.com/TurtlePreserv/Turtle_Preserve.htm.