On Friday, adults and children who responded to the invitation of the Green Patrol and the Department of Ecology released 800 turtles on Holi Beach as part of the conservation program for this species managed by the municipality.
“There are between 700 and 800 little turtles that were born today. We carry out night surveillance on the beaches, collecting eggs from the nests, and bringing them to incubate, similar to how the turtles do. Once the eggs hatch, we release them.” explained Idelfonso Ramos Guerrero, supervisor of Environment.
Regarding the complaints of residents who say that their calls are not attended to when the turtles are spawning, he said that they are all attended to, but sometimes they take time to arrive because they are attending to another site at the same time.
Ramos said, “The reports have to be made to 911, since it is the active phone 24 hours a day. They notify us. Sometimes the green patrol arrives, or they pass the messsage to us directly. Sometimes it takes us a while, but we do arrive because we patrol 5 or 6 beaches. Sometimes we hang out on another beach, and we have to wait 40 minutes, which is how long it takes for the turtle to spawn and for us to be able to move from that point to another beach. There is a risk that, if we leave the eggs there, the turtles will be killed or removed from the nest.”
The recommendations for those who witness these events is to keep a distance of at least 10 meters, do not approach the turtle, do not take photos with a flash, do not pick it up, do not climb on the turtle, do not steal its eggs, which is a federal crime, punishable by up to 9 years in prison, and, above all, call 911 to make the report.
Rule 162 of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) establishes how the release should be carried out so that their main predator, which are birds, do not eat them. This should be done at sunset to give them more chance to survive.
Around 50 people attended the Holi Beach release. Many of them were children. who held a little turtle in their hands for the first time, and followed the instructions of the authorities to keep behind the line so as not to step on them.