Warm Caribbean nights.
Great music. People-watching, oh,
and baby turtles! Could it get any
better?
On Tuesday night, the Mariachi Band of the Fifth Naval Region (Mariachi de la Secretaría de Marina) performed in Centro as part of the annual Isla Fest, a summertime celebration of the anniversary of Isla Mujeres.
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| Four vocalists - great voices |
Lawrie and I arrived a few minutes ahead of the
scheduled start time and were surprised that there were so few people in the
audience.
By the time the group started
– precisely at eight o’clock, military time – the chairs were filled with navy
and city officials and numerous locals.
And then the music started. Wow! You could tell the group of eighteen
musicians had been together for quite some time. Everyone was relaxed and performing at their
peak. It was a great way to spend an
evening.
As for the tiny turtles, as most of you know, we live in
a house on the beach in Mexico, and summertime is turtle nesting time.
The next night, Wednesday evening, as we were getting settled to enjoy a glass of wine and watch the sunset, we heard a voice yell: “Hey, he’s got a baby turtle!” Lawrie and I dashed out to the beach to see what was happening.
Three visitors from Nashville had caught a local canine in the act of gulping down a hatchling. Too late! He licked his lips, checking around for another tasty treat but, the Nashville folks were fiercely guarding the nest.
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| Kim Bailey & Celeste Reed - Nashville |
The next night, Wednesday evening, as we were getting settled to enjoy a glass of wine and watch the sunset, we heard a voice yell: “Hey, he’s got a baby turtle!” Lawrie and I dashed out to the beach to see what was happening.
Three visitors from Nashville had caught a local canine in the act of gulping down a hatchling. Too late! He licked his lips, checking around for another tasty treat but, the Nashville folks were fiercely guarding the nest.
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| Bert Bailey - grinning like a little kid. |
Unfortunately, this year, none of the eggs from the
nests along our stretch of beach have been collected, allowing numerous neighbourhood canines to dig up eggs and sometimes the babies.
SEMARNAT, the government office responsible for the ocean and shores around Mexico, in
conjunction with the local turtle farm, have hatched approximately 33,000
baby turtles this summer. A record-breaking 130,000 hatchlings are predicted for this year, creating a huge space
problem. The turtle farm is overflowing
with nests, baby turtles, and eggs. There
just isn’t any more room for eggs. Lucky
for us, because of the overcrowding, we were able to experience a hatching firsthand,
to see the baby turtles digging their way to the surface.
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| Celeste Reed, taking babies to the water |
Our shoreline currently has a two-foot deep buildup of Sargasso seaweed, drifting in from the mid-Atlantic. It is a weird phenomenon this year affecting all of the Caribbean beaches. As the babies scrambled towards the ocean, they were faced with a mountain of seaweed, so our little group of humans gave them helicopter rides over the obstructions into the water.
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| Seaweed drifting in from the Atlantic |
Then, in the gathering dusk, the sharp-eyed frigate birds
spotted the tiny bobbing heads, diving from great heights to snatch up a few of
the babies. The turtles face a long and arduous
life of avoiding predatory fish, boat propellers, fishermen’s nets, illegal
hunting, and entanglement in plastic trash. It isn’t easy being a turtle – about one turtle in a thousand will live
to maturity.
Lawrie checked the nest again this morning. A few more late arrivals managed to dig out
and disappear under the cover of night, hopefully finding their way over the
mound of seaweed to the sea and not towards the bright lights of Cancun.
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| Hard not to grin when you see baby turtles! |
Hasta luego, Lawrie, Lynda, Sparky, and Thomas
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2 comments:
Wow! That's amazing! Since that entire beach looked like a minefield earlier this summer, I guess it stands to reason there'd be lots of eggs hatching now. I see lots of baby turtles in your future in the coming weeks!
Hi Becky - tons of nests, so many that some momma turtles are kicking out other momma's eggs when they re-dig the same area. Cheers L
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