Hatchery

Roof – Maya that blocks 50% of sun.

Walls – Maya for protection against crabs, raccoons, etc.

Sacks – filled with tide washed beach sand to eliminate bacteria

Secure sand from beach. This sand is free from any bacteria that may harm eggs.
Fill burlap sacks with sand in preparation for eggs. Each sack will hold 1 turtle’s eggs, between 96 and 120 eggs.
Purchase eggs from locals at a cost of 5 Cordoba’s more than the market will pay. This encourages the locals to sell us the eggs instead of bringing them to the market for sale. This also gives us the opportunity to educate them on the need to protect the turtle population for future generations. The egg buying process takes place after dusk and through the night. It is important to have the eggs back in the sand within a three hour window. It is also important to teach the locals to handle the eggs with care.
The eggs are then buried in the burlap sacks at a specified depth and covered with sand.
Each sack is marked with number of eggs, date purchased, and name of local that we purchased them from. The name of the local is important so that we can check the success percentage to ensure he is handling the eggs correctly. In showing him his name on the sack he will be more accountable. A poor success percentage and we will not buy form him in future.
After recording the info on the sacks we record in La Marena’s ledger with all the same information of date, quantity, etc.
The eggs will take 45 – 50 days to hatch. With the date being recorded we know when to start checking the eggs and to prepare for the hatching.
Each Saturday La Marena will visit the Vivero, check the status of eggs, inspect the Vivero, and sign off on the ledger.

Typically the turtles will hatch in the early morning. We then place the turtles in a shades protected area until dusk. If the turtles are let loose during the day the birds will get them once then enter the ocean.
We record the number of eggs hatched and inspect the eggs that did not hatch. All results are verified by La Marena on a weekly basis.

This process protects the baby turtles from:

Humans selling and eating eggs
Bacteria that is harmful to the eggs
Crabs, raccoons, birds, dogs, and other natural predators.

Unfortunately fish are the only natural predator that we cannot protect them from.