Ecological Group of Costa Verde Reports on Turtles, Iguanas & Happenings in San Pancho Frank D. Smith - Ecological Group of Costa Verde
July 3, 2013

Volunteers Patricia, Megan, Amalia, Simon, Starlie, Kristen & Summer

Hola Volunteers, Supporters and Readers.

Regarding last season's turtle nest records, the final count came to 1,433 nests recorded, producing 105,317 hatchlings, at 80.6%.

The 901 nests which were placed within the box nursery produced 73,903 hatchlings, at 86.1%. 484 nests on the beach produced 31,414 hatchlings, at 70%. The poachers ran off with 48 nests at .03%.

We are continuously on the beach looking for nests. If you have information on the location of a nest or a nesting turtle, please call us at 045-322-191-1475 or (311) 258-4100.

The best laid plans of hatchling and our staff sometimes runs astray of mother nature. Our efforts to keep the beach nursery dry by covering its surface with plastic sheeting failed, not as a result of any rain, but instead it was a combination of large waves riding on top of a high tide, which luckily at the time contained no nests within the nursery.

Looking back on our flooding problems over the past ten years, we decided to place the first nests in the box nursery,    although our luck will run out in late August when we will again be forced to place some 400 nests on the beach.

I've noticed a major change in our weather that cannot be ignored. Over the past 43 years there have been over 339 category 2 to 5 Pacific hurricanes, as compared to only 14 hurricanes in the years before 1970 to 1927, why such a remarkable increase?

Here in San Pancho, photographs show several palapas that were built in the early 70s/80s, despite being built far out on the beach in front of town, these palapas survived waves up until the late 90s, waves which would make it impossible to replace them today. The most obvious of all, our beach nurseries have experienced serious flooding since 2004. 

   

After a span of eighteen months, Yellow Pages finely released their newest phone book, and as expected there were many changes here in town. Approximately thirty-one listings were canceled, while there were over seventy new numbers issued. I’ve reedited the phone section of the Homeowners Directory, and if you need a corrected copy, (phone section only) drop by the house.

First Iguana hatchlings

On June 19th our first ever Iguana eggs hatched, and what an experience! Unlike the marine turtle hatchling that lies motionless for hours, these Iguana hatchlings leap from the egg like greased lightning and have little trouble out running the best of us. It looks as if a good number survived, although fourteen others escaped, having no problem in lifting off the box lid and making a run for it. Not to worry. Volunteer cats were on the job, and most of the escaped Iguanas have been brought into my house and placed at my feet unharmed.   

Weather-wise, day time temperatures were mostly within the mid to high 80's while night time were between the high 60's to mid 70's. Except a few days of high waves, there has been no outstanding weather events, a half a dozen spats of very light rain, light winds, some clouds and some lightning. On the 25th of June, weather conditions took a sharp turn as hurricane Cosme came within 1,700 miles of our coast, she created heavy rains and heavy clouds which lasted for three days. Cosme produced about 2 inches of rain, total rainfall for June came to 2.4 inches.  

Thunderstorm activities in this area generally follows a predictable set of patterns, although if a small cumulus cloud is to become a thunderstorm it must avoid winds of any speed, elevation and direction. Although when developed they can within create their own strong winds, and large thunderstorm can reach an elevation of over 60,000 feet, and may display what the Southwest Indians call a thunderbird, caused where the very top is swept off into a thin sheet by high gradient winds. I've also noticed one peculiar thing, when the thunderstorm becomes active with lightning it turns from a very light-blue to a light-cream color.

Town-wise, our gas station has once again fallen into a state of inactivity. The peso exchange is 12.8, regular gasoline is 3.43 per gallon. Nearly a hundred workers at the new Polo grounds are moving heaven and earth to have the facility finished by November, and unfortunately the equestrian training area has been closed until November.

River wasteland transformed into a world class polo facility

Volunteer-wise, despite our efforts to bring aboard the required numbers of volunteers, we are still short about two during the months of July, August and September, we need more help!!

June’s volunteers were: Joslin, Starlie and Summer Bertrand, USA - Simon Baker, UK – Amalia Esta Maria, Germany – Kristen Barbour, Patricia Dombrowski, Megan Ewald, USA.

You can contact Frank D. Smith, Director of Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde, A.C., Skype is turtlebee, telephone is (311) 258-4100 and email is grupo-eco@project-tortuga.org.

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