Harvesting Sea Turtle Eggs

Isla Mujeres is a breeding ground for three or four species of turtles, and there is now an effort to help them survive. Because of a number of predators (humans, dogs, fish, birds, raccoons, fishing nets) only about 1 out of 1000 turtle eggs hatch and live to reproduce.

Turtles can remain under water for up to five hours, and they can sometimes slow their heart rate down to about one beat per minute. It takes them 25-30 years to become sexually mature. Some species can live 80 years and can weigh over 1000 pounds.

Lora, William, and I volunteered to help harvest turtle eggs. We arrived on the beach late one stormy night and waited in the intermittent rain until one large female white turtle (white on the underside) slowly worked her way up the beach where she herself was hatched decades ago. With her flippers she started digging a hole, but she soon hit rock. She abandoned this hole and went down the beach 100 feet and dug another hole around 30 inches deep.

She straddled the hole and then sort of went into a trance while she laid 140 eggs. As she laid the eggs, we crawled up to the hole on our bellies and reached in to pull out the eggs two or three at a time. The eggs were placed in the backpack of one of a young volunteer, Jesus Ismael.

The eggs are slightly larger than chicken eggs, and they were a little soft. All of the eggs were put into a backpack. Later they would be taken to the turtle farm where they are buried in the sand in little wire cages. After the hatchlings emerge they are kept in tanks for a week or two and then released on the same beach where they were laid. The farm is not allowed to keep the baby turtles for more than a few weeks for fear that if feed, they will not be able to survive on their own.

It was quite an experience to watch this turtle lay her eggs on the same beach where she was born. There was something timeless about the fact that these turtles have been doing this for thousands of years, and that they have overcome huge odds in order to reproduce. Some sea turtles have a keen inner-compass that allows then to accurately navigate thousands of miles. It looked like the turtle was crying as tears rolled out of her eyes while laying the eggs, but apparently this is how she gets rid of excess salt.