Sea Turtle Save

You can imagine our excitement and happiness to learn that the location of the turtle game preserve was barely a mile from our hotel. And learning that baby turtles would be released every evening between 6 and 6:30 gave us a new timetable for the remainder of the days we'd be in Nuevo Vallarta. What a wonderful way to spend our evenings, releasing baby turtles into the beautiful sunset!

This baby turtle release had not been planned on our itenary because we didn't know of its existence. It was an added bonus for choosing Nuevo Vallarta over Puerto Vallarta. Turtles do not nest in Puerto Vallarta so tourists have to pay to take tours to the game preserve, something we didn't have to do as our hotel, the Occidental Allegro Nuevo Vallarta, was only a short walking distance to the preserve. Our hotel was also less than a five minute walk to Paradise Mall, which was convenient for doing our laundry, exchanging currency at the bank (you get the best rates from a bank), and shopping for souvenirs and delicious Mexican candy.

We took photos of the game preserve. The game preserve is run by the federal government. It's just a small building with a small fenced in area for nests. It's staffed with a very passionate biologist, other technicians and volunteers. They put up laminated informational brochures like the ones in the photos below to provide information to tourists.

(Photo 1) Olive Ridley Sea Turtles have been nesting on these beaches for millions of years.












(Photo 2) Up to a hundred turtle hatchlings can be found in one nest. Turtle hatchlings usually emerge from the sand in the early morning or late at night.

(Photo 3) The Olive Ridley Turtles are released into theocean at night to avoid the presence of predators. On liberation night, visitors to the Nuevo Vallarta turtle preserve line up to release baby sea turtles. Liberation offers public education to all ages.

(Photo 4) Up to a hundred turtle hatchlings can be found in one nest.





The photo on the left shows the fenced enclosure where eggs are placed in new nests. Most of the baby turtles are Olive Ridley but six of the seven sea turtle species nests on the shores of Neuvo Vallarta. The only species that doesn't is the Australian flatback.

Incubation generally takes about 8 weeks but the temperature of the sand governs the speed at which the embryos develop so hatching periods can range remarkably. The temperature of the sand also determines the sex of the baby turtles . The hotter the sand, the faster the embryos develop. Sea turtle eggs have no sex chromosomes to determine the sex of the embryo. Cooler sand temperatures produce male babies and warmer temperatures produce females.

Sea turtle hatchlings are on their own from the time their mother finishes covering up her nest. Digging out from the nest is a group effort that can take several days. They usually emerge from the nest at night because it is cooler. Once on the beach, the babies scramble around the top of the nest, orient themselves and dash toward the sea. However, the game preserve does not allow the babies to scramble to the sea on their own because of the presence of thousands of tourists, bright lights from hotels that have a tendency to disorient the babies and dune buggies on the beach that could kill the babies. The release is timed for sunset when most of their predators would have gone to roost and tourists are invited to participate (with a donation of 20 pesos each - $2 Canadian) so that the turtles may be released safely and with the best possible chance of survival.