The university in Guasave harvested over 100 sea turtle eggs from the beach of Boca del Rio a few months ago. They hatched at the last full moon! Practically the whole town turned out to see these little miracles! In Spanish, their name is Tortuga Delfin. Anyone know what variety that is in English?
The teacher explained that in the wild, these baby turtles have about a 15% survival rate. Predators, including dogs who eat the eggs and seagulls who snatch the hatchlings as they are making their way to the water's edge, make the odds of baby sea turtles even reaching the sea very uneven! The students' goal was to even the odds a bit by assuring that as many turtles as hatched made it to the sea.
Children, both young and old, were in awe at these little creatures! One grandma was speechless as she held the little tortuga in her hand, "Mama! You need to put it back. It's for the kids to let go!" She just shook her head. It was so sweet. I knew how she felt! I wanted to hold one forever and just marvel that something so small could grow so big, but at the same time I wanted each and every one of these little babies to reach the open sea and live their lives...I'm such a hopeless romantic!
Esteban waded out into the waves to take some photos. "They're everywhere!" he shouted back to shore. The little guys kept bumping into his legs; he was afraid to take a step for fear of squashing one! Can you see them? I drew circles around a couple.
I like to think that most of them made it out into the open ocean. I just love living on the beach! This was one experience we never could have had living in the mountains of Oregon!!!
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