With the beginning of August, the season’s greatest arrival of sea turtles to the Puerto Vallarta coast begins, with the expectation of 3,000 turtle nests being registered this year.
The number of turtle arrivals fluctuates year to year, and their presence on the Vallarta coast is of the utmost importance, and it demands care and constant work from civil society, organizations, and government.
Biologist Helios Hernández Hurtado, deputy director of Environment of the municipal government, said that once August arrives, the presence of turtles spawning on the coast is more constant, to the extent that up to 70 or 80 nests can be registered in one night, which requires a larger mobilization of the personnel under his charge, as well as coordination with the turtle centers in the area.
Because the coastline of Puerto Vallarta is almost entirely a tourist area, when the turtle arrives and spawns, it is necessary to recover the eggs almost immediately, so that natural predators or the presence of humans, don’t destroy the nest.
When locating a turtle spawning, 911 should be called immediately so that trained personnel can be dispatched to collect the nest and be able to transfer it to the turtle centers for protection.
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Hernández Hurtado said that on average, 100 eggs are collected for each nest, of which around 85 percent (sometimes a little more), hatch (the turtles are born). Each year around 230,000 turtles manage to be born and of this number a little less reach the sea.
The number of turtles that reach adulthood is negligibly lower. One in a thousand according to statistics. The spawning season began in June and ends in December (sometimes lasting until January), but the bulk of turtles spawning is recorded between August and September.
This year, Puerto Vallarta was named the national capital of the turtle by hosting the annual turtle meeting, which was held for the first time outside the Sea of Cortez area.
