Save the Turtles!

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By Rincón-Gallardo,Eduardo

From now till Fall, a most promising phenomenon breeds in the Bay of Banderas.

From late in the Summer, adult females of the Pacific Ridley, also known as Olive Ridley Sea turtle family (Lepidochelys olivacea), will have taken to the painstaking job of finding the ideal warm spot on the beach to dig a hole and lay an average of 100 eggs.

The Pacific Ridley Turtle is a year-round inhabitant of the bay. They can be spotted floating lazily –we call them Golfina, which has a connotation with laziness - or sometimes mating in the surface of the water. Their dark shiny shell is unmistakable.

They are listed as an endangered species for many reasons, to begin with, it is the adult females in the age of reproduction that come out onto the beach, making them an easy prey for anyone, mainly those who trade in their shells, meat, skin and eggs, who can easily render them defenseless just by turning them over.

Their eggs are also at a great disadvantage because they are left alone for a period of about fifty days, relying on the absence of predators and the warmth of the sand to help them incubate.

And lastly, the tender newborns, upon hatching, are on their own to cross the expanse of beach to reach the ocean and start swimming to incorporate to their life at sea; having to surface to breathe at intervals, they are a feast to plenty of predators on land, in the water and from the air.

The Mexican Government is sponsoring turtle camps throughout the bay, cared for by specialists in the field. They will find the nests and relocate them to safe, patrolled areas, so most of them will hatch and survive.

And every year a new and growing record number is achieved!
We can all participate in this great effort to preserve the Golfina or Pacific Ridley Turtle. Come and join our ecological evening tours promoting awareness on endangered species and team with us releasing baby turtles at dusk to help them overcome this major step against predators and extinction. Part of the fee paid goes into sustaining these programs.

When the rest of the world seems to be going in the wrong direction, we can be proud to be, for just that one moment, on the side that is doing the right thing, helping baby turtles a few hours old as they instinctively fade into the night of the ocean, a night that many call "the hidden years,"during which little is known about them, before we can, hopefully, see them reappear as adults.