Glenn McCullough
Member
I vacationed in Cancun, just got home...wont go in August again....got fried. But there were some upsides, like experiencing the Sea turtles come ashore to drop their eggs. One of the most awesome things I have witnessed.
Photo 1 shows the preserve each hotel is required to maintain of the eggs dropped at their site. They are cataloged with date laid, how many, date hatched and released. The tracks show their arrival, exit and laying points.
Photo 2 shows the mother exiting the hole after laying her eggs after 11pm, takes about 2 hours for the process ( you are not allowed to flash photo them before as it may scare them back to sea). She was a good 20 to 24" in diameter, but not the largest at all. She laid her eggs no more than 10 feet from us. You can see that she dug a hole maybe 2 feet deep by 4 feet in diameter, the hole shown in pic 3 the next day, near the lounge chairs. The larger hole was made by an enormous sea turtle I couldnt get a shot of..
Photo 4 shows a batch of that days hatchlings and # 5 shows how small they are when born.
We were lucky enough to be one they chose to release them that night. There were 79 of them, we all lined up along the beach and were handed one to set them back off to sea to start their life journey. They say that there are usually 100 to 120 eggs hatched per laying. There is a 2% survival rate to reproduction. However when released at night, it increases to 70% as most are gone before the first night fall when they break for the beach in the daylight, being eaten by birds and daytime sea feeders.
I wonder if the one I released has made it so far...
Photo 1 shows the preserve each hotel is required to maintain of the eggs dropped at their site. They are cataloged with date laid, how many, date hatched and released. The tracks show their arrival, exit and laying points.
Photo 2 shows the mother exiting the hole after laying her eggs after 11pm, takes about 2 hours for the process ( you are not allowed to flash photo them before as it may scare them back to sea). She was a good 20 to 24" in diameter, but not the largest at all. She laid her eggs no more than 10 feet from us. You can see that she dug a hole maybe 2 feet deep by 4 feet in diameter, the hole shown in pic 3 the next day, near the lounge chairs. The larger hole was made by an enormous sea turtle I couldnt get a shot of..
Photo 4 shows a batch of that days hatchlings and # 5 shows how small they are when born.
We were lucky enough to be one they chose to release them that night. There were 79 of them, we all lined up along the beach and were handed one to set them back off to sea to start their life journey. They say that there are usually 100 to 120 eggs hatched per laying. There is a 2% survival rate to reproduction. However when released at night, it increases to 70% as most are gone before the first night fall when they break for the beach in the daylight, being eaten by birds and daytime sea feeders.
I wonder if the one I released has made it so far...
