Trippin': Puerto Vallarta - Turtle Release

At the hotel that we stayed at, there was an ecological event that anyone could participate in. It was the releasing of baby sea turtles into the ocean! So cool eh? Although it was something that I knew I couldn't miss out on, I also had some concerns about how ecologically this sort of thing was. I'm a hypocrite. I know! Any worries I had went right out the window when I saw the group of people already gathered on the beach. I went bounding straight towards the cooler sitting on the table. I pushed grandmas and small kids out of the way. I love turtles! And they were so cute! I never knew baby sea turtles were all black! No flash was allowed because it would temporarily blind the turtles for a couple of hours and therefore delay their release. Supposedly, we were told that with human intervention, a super slightly higher percentage of sea turtles make it into adulthood. But it wasn't substantially more than if they were to find their way all by their lonesome. The numbers are crazy. I think it was like less than ten out of about a hundred will likely survive. Nature sucks! Most of the baby turtles fall victim to predators such as crabs, sharks and other mean big fishies. The temperature of a nest of eggs determines the turtles sex. Warm temp equals females and cool temp equals males. The ecological team monitors the nests that are laid on their strip of beach and make sure that the ratio of females are always larger than males. Cos you know, us ladies are the ones that make the babies. And with the population of sea turtles at such low numbers, they want to take the necessary measures to ensure lots of baby turtles are hatched. Human intervention in the form of this turtle release is important because one hundred percent of the baby turtles make it into the ocean. Without the assistance, some fail to head in the right direction and die. Well, they're gonna die anyway! Nature sucks!