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 News from Around Banderas Bay | October 2005 
CasaMagna Marriott Releases 365 Baby Sea Turtles
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Two young students hoping their baby turtles would be the lucky ones to make it through the first night. | 
| | Part of the long line of kids awaiting the "uno, dos, tres" for release. | 
| | The nursery at the Marriott. | 
| | The babies instinctively race to the water to begin a new life. |
Without much fanfare, the CasaMagna Marriott resort in the Marina, invited close to 200 kids from the Escuela Club de Leones (Lion's Club School) in Colonia 5 de Diciembre to release 365 baby sea turtles at dusk, all born that same morning. The kids weren't aware that Monday Night Football or the baseball playoffs were on television, nor did they really care.
Each child, which ranged from 6 to 14 years old were given one baby turtle and on the count of three by biologist Oscar Aranda, the kids put the turtles on the sand close to shore, and they struggled to get into the sea.
These sea turtles, which are an endangered species grow to be 2 ½ feet in length and up to 90 pounds, but need to make it through a very dangerous first night. Aranda told us that only 5% of the baby turtles would even be alive the following day.
They would either die or be eaten, mostly by birds, as Mother Nature attempts to provide equilibrium in the world. Should they make it to the second night, probably half will grow to maturity and live to 45-50 years in the water. If in captivity they live to over 70 years old.
Puerto Vallarta is one of the largest breeding areas in the world for these sea turtles, and October and November are when most releases occur. The Marriott hires Aranda from the "Save the Turtles", a non-profit organization to supervise the release as well as care for the eggs prior to hatching. More information can be found on the organization's website,
www.eco-logica.org.
They are called the "Golfina" sea turtles and since June of 2001 the nursery was built on the Marriott grounds and has a capacity of 10,000 eggs or 100 nests. The Marriott has been one of the top contributors and in 2004 over 17,000 baby turtles were released on their beach, representing 29% of the baby turtles born and released in Puerto Vallarta.
From June to October, the turtles return to the same beach from which they were born, to lay their eggs. The eggs are collected by resident biologists and placed in the exact conditions, but protected from predators and humans in the nursery. Each nest is approximately 100 eggs and takes 45 days for them to hatch.
I was glad to be invited to Nature's show by the resort, and there are limited opportunities for anyone interested to witness and be part of the next release scheduled soon. Please contact the Marriott at (322) 226-0000 for details. I guess I'll read about the results of the ball games the following morning, and that's fine with me. |
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