San Pancho and Turtle News from Costa Verde Ecological Group Frank D. Smith - Ecological Group of Costa Verde
October 2, 2015

Nest box cleaning

Hola Volunteers, Supporters and Readers ~

On September 7th, we found an overwhelming thirty-seven nests! The largest number collected this season and, as luck would have it, the box nursery also filled to capacity that night, 372 nests. Without boxes, we were forced for the first time to place all additional nests in the beach nursery, but things got out of control and there was no cooperation between Mother Nature and the nest of the Marine Turtle.

That morning we received the first high waves of the year, waves that continued to sweep over the beach nursery that morning and for the next two days. To top off this catastrophe, Mother Nature dumped an additional six inches of rain on the nursery throughout the next four days.

Aside from the flooding of the beach nursery, there is some concern over the extreme heat both in and around the nurseries. The heat index rose to 118.8°f this month. The beach nursery is totally covered with 95% shade cloth. As for the box nursery, all we can do is keep the doors open at night and employ two fans to vent it during the day. By the end of September, we placed 619 nests in the box nursery, 79 in the beach nursery, 41 nests were left on the beach and poachers ran off with 17.

Since the number of nests collected is the lowest it has been in many years and the survival rate is lower than normal, it is now unclear when the one-millionth hatchling will be released. Perhaps in late October or early November we may reach the one-millionth.

Volunteer-wise: Juan, Jorge, Patty, Manuel and Simon will help as needed. Take a look at our lineup at Schedule.

August 8th, Avila Douglas arrived from Australia; August 16th, Katharine Derry arrived from Canada; August 21st, Jessica Hiller arrived from the United States; August 29th, Monika Grieger arrived from Switzerland; September 1st, Zac Wilson arrived from Australia; September 2nd, Pauline Soanno arrived; September 5th, Mark Hiller arrived from the United States.

Mark returned home on September 13th; September 27th Pauline Soanno returned home; October 2nd Jessica Hiller returns home.

Weather-wise: A mixed bag of mostly very hot temperatures, up to 95°f and occasionally down into the mid 80°f, nights in the very high 60°f to low 70°f. With a no help from a tropical storm the crest of the beach in front of Las Palmas and La Perla has been reduced to less than 20 feet, and at times waves were rolling in through the chairs and tables. The beaches are cluttered with floating debris caused by heavy rain in early September. On September 11th, the lagoon broke open a channel to the sea and remained open until around the end of the month.

Town and country wise: Only one gas station is under construction and should be opening sometime in October. The other thought-to-be gas station is a bulk storage area for gasoline. It looks as if the construction on the intersection in front of town is finished but it is by no means as fancy as the intersection at Sayulita or Lo de Marcos. Although, the construction workers did remove the San Francisco signpost from the center of the south inbound lane.

The peso is running between 16.25/.45 per US dollar. Regular gasoline stabilized at 13.57 pesos per liter and propane at 440 pesos per tank. Regular gasoline is (3.78541 liters per gallon X 13.57 cost per liter / divided by 16.45 pesos) = $3.12 per gallon.

Frank D. Smith, Director
Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde, A.C.
Project Tortuga.
Telephone: (311) 258-4100

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