San Pancho and Turtle News from Costa Verde Ecological Group Frank D. Smith - Ecological Group of Costa Verde
April 4, 2019

Hola Volunteers and Supporters ~

Except for few late season nests and natural hatching there has been little marine turtle activities in March.  

Below is the total for the 2018 nesting season. Although we do have one serious problem. In the morning hours a dog has been seen digging up turtle nests. When you try to protect the nest the owner of the dog, (a women) comes to the dogs defense and tells you that the has dog the right to dig up the nest because it’s Mexican. The woman is totally wrong, and the dog is in violation of a serious Mexican law, stop her dog!! If you see this happening, move the nest a quarter mile down the beach.  

• 1,010 were recorded throughout the 2018 nesting season.
• 639 nests were placed in the box nursery.
• 336 were left on the beach in good locations.
• 19+ were taken by poachers.
• 16+ were out by the surf.
• 80,690 hatchling made their way down to the sea this season.
• 53,603 from the box nursery.
• 27,087 from nests left on the beach.
• 1,242,929 total hatchlings released since July 1992.
• 1,050 young female turtles will return to our beaches to nest for the first time over the next eleven to sixteen years.

Volunteer-wise: No change. Year-round volunteers: Manuel Murrieta, Julio and America Gonzales, Juan Flores and family, Karen Sorum and Hallie Loveridge. November through April volunteers are Gale Greer, Lorren Garlichs and Robert and Sandra Klusmeyer.

This year the volunteer enlistment process has been totally crazy and exhausting. To date we have received over 83 letters and/or applications throughout the past seven months. Of the 83 below individuals:   

• 45 sent us their applications
• 38 sent us letters of enquiry
• 30 volunteers have been selected to date
• 12 of the 30 are new volunteers and 18 are former members
• 15 applicants have either turn down our offer, or bailed-out without saying a word

We need about at least a half a dozen more volunteers, especially the month of May.

Weather-wise: Daytime temperatures were in the mid 70°s to Low 80°s, while night time temps were in the low to mid 60°s. Throughout March the weather was very pleasant, but still with cold nights.      

After three an a half months of attention to Coyote's injuries he’s back on his feet with a collar and leash of course. We feel that he may have a slight limp for the rest of his life, but we’re just thankful that he’s alive and walking again. For now he is happy and healthy and should be back on the beach by the end of April.

The April first benefit dinner was a wonderful event with around a hundred in attendance. We enjoyed outstanding music and had a great time visiting old friends. The event raised over 50,000 pesos which replaced the lose of directory funds. A special thanks to Joe Hadlock, Sharon Keating, Lorren Garlichs, Gale Greer, Lisa Fisher and the band for their help in managing the party.

Town and Country:  Measuring the large number of construction vehicles passing in front of my house, new construction and remodeling throughout San Pancho is at an all time high, passing the 2006 record max. The peso at the end of March is about 18.65, regular gasoline is about $4.04 per gallon. Without the islands out in the center of the lagoon the entire surface looks huge, a total plus for all wildlife.

If you go to our websites //project-tortuga.org/email.html or //project-tortuga.org/application.html you’ll soon notice that neither of them are working properly. The problem is within the “CGI system in red below. The HTML code below is from the mail site, if you have an ideal how to correct the problem, please let me know:

<tr>  <td align="center">
<form name="Message" action="//project-tortuga.org/cgi-bin/cgiemail/message.txt" method="post">
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#ffffcc" width="520"> <tr>

Frank Smith, Director
Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde, A.C.
Project Tortuga

Tel. 311-258-4100
Email: grupo-eco@project-tortuga.org

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