Sea Turtle Sanctuary

On our last full day in Mazatlán we went on an excursion to a local sea turtle sanctuary. The tour operators picked us up at our hotel at 8:00am and drove our group about 30 minutes northwest through the countryside to this secluded beach area. 

There are a handful of protected beach areas along the Pacific coast of Mexico where marine biologists and Mexican government agencies work together to provide safe harbor for the thousands of turtle eggs that are laid on the beaches each year. I believe we were touring the area on the north (upper side) of the photo below. Our visit to the sanctuary included a boat tour of the neighboring mangrove sanctuaries, lunch, and participating in the release of baby sea turtles into the ocean.

After our group was settled in at the beach camp, our tour guides presented a 15 minute talk to teach us about the behavior of sea turtles and the nesting/egg hatching process. In particular, the guides talked about the conservation efforts by the marine biologists who work year-round at this site to protect the eggs. We learned that there are seven sea turtle species, six of which lay eggs on Mexico's beaches. We also learned that a distinguishing characteristic between sea and land/lake turtles is the front flippers. Notice in the drawing below that the sea turtles have flippers, while the land/lake turtles have "leg-like" front legs. Another interesting fact is that female sea turtles return to the same geographic area where they were born to lay their eggs. The marine biologists who work at this sanctuary tag the adult females that return and record the proportion of females each year that return again to lay their eggs on this beach.

Before we released the eggs, we went on a boat ride through the mangrove wetlands just off the beach. About 20 of us were seated in this small motorboat, with one guide in the front and the boat captain in the back. I was seated in the front row, hence why I was so close to our tour guide.

Once of the coolest part of the boat ride was going through the tunnels formed by the natural growth of the mangrove trees. On the bottom of the photo you can see the light outline of the tip of the boat as we were about to enter one of the tunnels.

The blurriness on the left below is our tour guide's face.

Inside the mangrove tunnels the taller people had to duck their heads to avoid getting hit by the low-hanging mangrove branches, and we all had to keep our arms inside the boat to avoid touching the mangroves. I loved seeing the complexity of the root systems up close. This reminded me a little of the mangroves present south of Miami.

The weather was partly cloudy (not much sun), but this didn't stop the brilliant reflection of the vegetation off the water as pictured below.

A highlight was seeing different animals along the water's edge. Below is a large iguana perched in a tree.

And one of two baby crocodiles that we saw perched on logs. The tour guides explained that if it had been a sunny day we would have seen dozens of adult crocodiles along the edges of the mangroves, but since there wasn't much sun the crocodiles had little incentive to come up to the water's edge.

At one point we passed a beach area, where dozens of sea gulls flew away from the low noise of the motor boat.

And last but not least, this magnificent heron. I loved watching the herons perched along water's edge, and then continuing to watch them as they took flight above the water.

After we returned from the boat journey, it was time for the turtle release. Our group walked down the short path to the beach, where the marine biologists keep the turtle eggs sectioned off to protect them from predators. 

Each of the mesh circles (there are dozens pictured in the pen above) either surround eggs that have yet to hatch, or eggs that have recently hatched.

One of the guides showed us how they handle the turtles once hatched and ready for release out to the ocean.

And then we each got a plastic cup of baby sea turtles to release into the ocean. There were about a dozen squirmy baby turtles in each of the cups. 

The guides drew a line on the beach and asked us all to step behind the line. Once the guides said "go" we were able to tip our cups over the line to "release" our sea turtles onto the beach so that they could begin their journey to the ocean. The guides asked that we not cross the line in order to avoid stepping on the turtles.

Ready, set go! All the black dots between the people and ocean's edge are baby sea turtles racing for the water. Well, "racing" is actually a misleading term, as the turtles were moving somewhat slowly.

It was fascinating to watch the turtles, much more so than I would have thought. The group became a community of sorts, as we were all rooting for the turtles to get to water's edge as quickly as possible. Once in a while a wave would come ashore and sweep up a group of turtles and either take them out to sea, or bounce them around a bit and leave the turtles stranded on their backs on the sand. It was so interesting to watch the turtles struggle and eventually succeed to right themselves on their flippers to walk down the beach towards the ocean.

Towards the end we all stood around watching one last turtle make is way to the ocean. There were about 20 people in our group, so if we each released 12 turtles that's 240 baby sea turtles returned to the ocean.

The last one!

After the sea turtle release we walked back up the beach camp and enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal of stewed meat with rice, refried beans, fresh corn tortillas and a variety of tomato and vegetable salsas. Yum! 

Overall this was a memorable excursion that was a prefect blend of experiencing nature and learning about the science of the turtle species in an amazing environment.