Good News for Marine Turtles Around Banderas Bay Frank Smith - Grupo Ecologico
March 3, 2022

Between mid-November and mid-May we should expect to see about 62 late nests, in time they will hatch naturally as they have for millions of years. If we go back thirty years ago to a time when we were collecting an average of 200 nests per day, the number of late nests came to about 8 nests. As the number of nests collected began to increase from 200 to 1,480 the number of late nests also began to increase.

You can help us, if you see fresh turtle tacks or a nest site. Take time to erase them so poachers cannot find the nest site. Note, because of the winter cold most hatchlings produced today are male.

I receive many emails and telephone calls asking for the date and time of the next hatchling release. Marine turtle professionals around the world have warned us that publicly releasing hatchlings is the major reason that most hatchlings do not survive their long journey far out to sea. The reason, when hatchlings are held in container for hours or even days to release them at resorts and hotels, the energy stored in their body is exhausted.

Unfortunately, because of these findings we will not be publicly releasing hatchlings again. It is a serious problem facing hatchlings around the world, and we must do our best to help them survive.

We are looking for several more volunteer for this coming summer, if you or a friend are interested go to our volunteer application.

The pandemic has somewhat chopped into our ability to obtain the needed volunteers as we had in the past. Although the pandemic problem is looking better, in México has become far safer than in the USA with less than 43K cases per million inhabitance as compared to the USA with 328K cases.

We have purchase a Can-Am Outlander 450 all-terrain vehicle; this vehicle along with the Honda CRV will be licensed by Semarnat for use on the beach and will join the dune buggy. The Can-Am will help us keep a better eye on poaching and those who are illegally harvesting hatchlings to sell to hotels and resorts. It will also give us the opportunity to visit our other five beaches.

Purchasing he Can-am has set us back financially, although the purchase was necessary, but refunding our treasury is also necessary. If you can help us, donate with PayPal.



Can-Am Outlander 450 ATV and the dune buggy

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