Replenishing Sea Turtles in Baja
Sea Turtles to be released across Baja - Helping to replenish populations.
As the sun sets on the Pacific Ocean ending another day just north of Cabo San Lucas Mexico many new lives are just beginning; with the release of newly hatched sea turtles. These specific Sea Turtle eggs were collected over a 15km section of Baja Sur in the San Cristobal Nature Reserve area just north of Land’s End and the city of Cabo San Lucas.
It is great fun to join in the release of these small wonders of Baja, no matter where or what type of turtles, and wish them a Bon Voyage to their new lives in the Sea. You will end up with a little education and the fun of partaking in the turtle’s race to the ocean. Many people name and cheer their newly found friends on to the waves as the ocean will eventually help with it’s currents to take them off to their new world. Adults begin to act like children and the children love the experience. So if you are ever planning to be in Baja try and find out when and where the turtle releases will be in your area; it is a truly worthwhile experience.
There are many varieties of Sea Turtles being protected and released by a multiple of organizations in multiple areas of Baja. Depending on climate and area is what determines which turtles and where they will be released. This is an event that takes place in fall just as the massive whale are on just arriving to Baja Sur after their long migration from Northern waters. So as these gentle giants arrive, these small hatchlings begin their instinctively short journey from the beach to the sea in hopes of surviving all of the predators (birds, large fish and some mammals) and finding food. All of these species are in need of protecting as many will die early on and others will be caught up in nets and illegally poached by others. By at least protecting these eggs from thieves, predators and damage of nests done by people driving on beaches these turtle hatchlings will have a better chance of survival.
The variety of species of turtles protected in Baja are; Leatherback, Olive Ridley, Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Eastern Pacific Green Turtles. It was explained to us that these turtles we released were of the Hawksbill variety and that further north on the Pacific side near Todos 
Santos is where you will find the Leatherback turtles and on the East Cape are they have more of the Eastern Pacific Green Turtles. While there are several species in many cases in the same area these organizations seem to focus on the more prevalent one from their respective areas.
Sea Turtles can take 30 years to grow to sexual maturity as i the case with the Pacific green turtles and many can eventually grow to 300-400 pounds! Unfortunately even today with these protected turtle nurseries there is a great deal of education and enforcement necessary to ensure their survival. Mexicans for many years depended on eating Sea Turtles (Cahuama as it is called in Spanish) and while many continue to do so many fisheries have crackdown on anyone in their co-ops capturing mature turtles by penalizing or banding them from the fishing co-ops. It is believed that eating the blood and oils of the Cahuama brings great health and virility for example, making it difficult to change some of the people’s minds to stop this practice.
All of this is helping as these non-profit organizations along with the Mexican government including the Army, PROFEPA and its now more educated citizens reporting the killing of turtles or stealing of eggs to the proper authorities. While not all of this has been successful there is no doubt that it can only help to ensure the future generations of Sea Turtles of Baja, Mexico and even other countries as the Loggerheads can from as far away as Japan.
One of the largest overall Sea Turtle protection and conservation efforts comes from Grupo Torugeo de Las Californias (Sea Turtle Conservation Network). Grupo Tortugeo A.C. was founded by Wallace J. Nichols a researcher of sea turtles from the U.S. He started this organization to educate by holding meetings with the fishing co-ops even in the smallest and more remote areas of Baja as to the need to protect the turtles.
Most of the organizations help to protect and release turtles are non-profits and depend on volunteers and or donations. If you would like to become more involved please look up any of these or any other organizations to volunteer in the collection of eggs or the release of turtles as well as to make a donation. There also many festivals such as in Puerto San Carlos , Baja California Sur in late July or late September in Puerto Lopez Mateos and in November north of Cabo at the San Cristobal Natural reserve and Los Barriles on the East Cape. These are just a few of the festivals and areas of active protection of Baja sea turtle nesting. There are many other places in the Sea of Cortez on both sides of 
the Sea that are also involved with protection, release and educational programs.
The program Asupmatoma Asociacion Civil (non-profit) is a volunteer organization started in 1995 that handles the protection of the sea turtles by moving their eggs to a protected breeding area north of Cabo San Lucas, in front of the water desalination plant in front of the Diamante Golf course and development. They take the eggs from various turtle nests at night during the summer months and transplant them to this location for gestation. The different nests are marked with dates, quantities of eggs, expected hatch date and when ready the staff while harvest (dig up) the nest taking out the hatchlings and prepare them to be released 
immediately for release by many different volunteers.
Thank you to all of the volunteers and organizations helping protect Sea turtles. Please email me a jag@Bajainsider.com to have your organization added to the list and of any upcoming events so we can help by letting more people know and give support. Please look over the resources at the bottom of this article in order to see what when and how you can participate in the protection of these wonderful sea creatures....
Additional Resources
www.asupmatoma.org/
The organization located just north of Cabo San Lucas for protection, release and education of Sea Turtles
www.grupotortuguero.org/home/
One of the largest of the organizations for protection of Sea turtles in Baja
www.propeninsula.org/
Various conservation and protection projects for Sea Turtles, whales and others species of Baja