There is a non-profit sea turtle sanctuary in Todos Santos. They patrol the beach at night in search of adult sea turtle laying eggs and gather the eggs to raise in their nursery (greenhouse) to increase the survival rate of the juvenile sea turtles. While we were there, there were olive ridley sea turtles hatching from a couple of their nests. They also harbor Pacific leatherback and black sea turtles.
The olive ridley's typically nest 1 to 3 times per season, producing about 100 to 110 eggs on each occasion. The eggs incubate in the sand for about 50 to 60 days before the juveniles hatch.
The turtle sanctuary lost their greenhouse during the hurricane, but was able to rebuild it in time to avoid losing any turtles.
As soon as the turtles hatch, they climb up out of the sand and are ready to go right into the ocean.
Some of the turtles know exactly what to do, others take a less direct approach down the beach.
After we had become turtle experts, we were walking down the beach near San Jose a few days later, we noticed some tiny tracks leading into the surf that looked like those of baby turtles...a sure sign that there was a hatch the previous night. We followed the tracks back up the beach to the nest and noticed there was one that had just emerged from the sand. Since there were hungry pelicans and osprey circling overhead, we decided to help the little guy down to the shoreline.
We found about three natural nests in that stretch of beach and found one other straggler that needed a little lesson in orienteering as he was headed up the beach to the cantina.
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