The Legends of San Pancho's

Olive Ridley sea turtles, both old and young, have been my dear guides into the world of San Pancho's marine legends. The Olive Ridleys, along with several other species of marine turtles, frequent the long, tranquil beaches through the summer and autumn evenings digging nests and laying their eggs in the hundreds. I have had the immense privilege of witnessing these majestic, prehistoric creatures emerging from the waves sparkling with phosphorescents. They then proceed to scale the beach's ever changing terrain to exert all energy biologically possible to dig and release 100+ eggs. After the birth, the turtles cover the nest with compressed sand by doing a latin inspired jig. Once the mama turtle is content with accomplishing her life's purpose, she leaves her nest without a single look over her shoulder. At this moment the volunteers of Grupo Ecologico de la Costa Verde are ready to find the nest and dig up the eggs resting in the mother's nest.

After the eggs are collected, the volunteers take the eggs either to the beach nursery where they are placed into a man-made nest in the sand to be released naturally or to the greenhouse nursery at the Center where the eggs are placed in artificial nests composed of styrofoam coolers. The success rate is a lot higher in the styrofoam nests, 90%, compared to 50% at the beach nursery and only 20% naturally. The eggs take about 5 weeks to hatch and then the volunteers process the styrofoam nests at the Center once 80% of the container have hatched and annotate how many eggs are sterile, hatchlings yet to hatch or sadly, the babies who did not make it through the gestation period.

The little hatchlings are then counted and placed into several bins ready to be released on the beach at 6:30 p.m., which is late enough to make it difficult for the birds and fish to prey on the hatchlings but still early enough for humans to witness the miraculous first stage of life, and then again at 10:30 p.m., 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. The baby turtles have an amazing magnetic adaptation, which draws them to the water even though they are still partially blind. As they travel to the water, they are able to warm up their body to this intense movement after being confined since creation so they are able to enter the ocean with full agility and endurance.

While the volunteer's work enables a much higher success rate from birth to release, only 1 out of 100 hatchlings will reach the reproductive stage of their life due to natural predators, and human presence through irresponsible fishing practices, poaching, and marine pollution. Even with these overwhelming obstacles there is still hope and this hope will only continue to expand through wide spread awareness. A type of consciousness that is positively contagious amongst people who care about all living beings and how to create a world in which they live harmoniously. You can take action by sharing the Center's story and informing yourself about the plethora of other groups working worldwide for this cause. Once you simply open your eyes and you may take in the magic of human compassion and its accomplishments. Check out Grupo's website: http://www.project-tortuga.org/.