The photo of armed Mexican marines standing guard over a beach full of baby sea turtles went viral in 2015, and it shows something real. On a handful of Pacific beaches in Oaxaca, Mexico's navy has been posted to protect olive ridley sea turtle nests from egg poachers. The reason is simple: when the guards leave, the eggs disappear. In August 2015, after marines were pulled away from Morro Ayuta beach for security work elsewhere, activists estimated that up to 80 per cent of the eggs there were dug up and taken.
Below is the story behind the picture: which turtles these are, why their eggs are stolen, what protection actually involves, and what visitors can do to help.
The turtles on the beach: olive ridleys and their arribadas
The hatchlings in the photos are olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea), the smallest and most numerous of the world's sea turtles. They are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, and international trade in them is banned under CITES Appendix I.
Olive ridleys are famous for the arribada, Spanish for "arrival". On certain nights, thousands of females crawl ashore on the same stretch of sand within a few days and dig their nests side by side. In Mexico, mass nesting of this kind still happens on only three beaches: Escobilla and Morro Ayuta in Oaxaca, and Ixtapilla in Michoacán.
A typical Pacific clutch holds around 105 eggs, and a female may nest once or twice a season. The eggs incubate in the warm sand for about 45 to 51 days. Sand temperature decides the sex of the young: nests at around 31 to 32°C produce females, cooler nests at 28°C or less produce males, and temperatures in between give a mix.
Concentrating so many nests in one place is a survival strategy, because predators cannot eat them all. It also makes these beaches an easy target for people with sacks.
Why the eggs are stolen
Mexico banned the hunting of sea turtles and the sale of their eggs and meat in 1990, and offenders can face up to nine years in prison. Before that, the scale of exploitation was enormous: more than one million adult olive ridleys were taken commercially off Mexico in 1968 alone, and the Pacific population crashed.
The ban reduced the slaughter of adults but never ended the egg trade. In parts of Mexico and Central America turtle eggs are eaten as a bar snack, often raw, and many people believe they boost male sexual performance. There is no scientific evidence that they work as an aphrodisiac, but the belief keeps demand alive.
The poachers themselves are often poor villagers rather than organised gangs. National Geographic, reporting from Morro Ayuta in 2015, met egg hunters who said simply that there was no other work, and noted that they might get around two US dollars for 100 eggs from market vendors. Other reports put the price much higher, at up to 15 pesos per egg further along the chain. Either way, the people who take the biggest risks earn the least.
What happened at Morro Ayuta in 2015
Morro Ayuta and nearby Escobilla are among the most important olive ridley nesting beaches in the world, and both are patrolled by personnel from Mexico's navy (Secretaría de Marina) working alongside the federal environmental enforcement agency, Profepa.
In August 2015, environmental activists reported that the marines guarding Morro Ayuta had been withdrawn because of security problems in another part of the country. Starting the very next night, they said, poachers moved in and took up to 80 per cent of the eggs laid on the beach. The figure is an estimate rather than a count, but it was widely reported and it shows how quickly a beach can be stripped once patrols stop.
Profepa responded by announcing that it would fly two of its own drones over Escobilla and Morro Ayuta to spot poachers. Its prosecutor, Guillermo Haro, said the aim was to stamp out the illegal extraction of eggs on the two beaches for good. Between July and mid-September 2015, officials reported seizing 14,000 eggs at the two sites and detaining one person.
A correction is worth making here. Many viral versions of this story claimed the government had spent four million dollars on four drones that would watch the beaches around the clock. The contemporary reports we could find describe two drones that Profepa already owned, with no price attached. We have not been able to confirm the larger figure.
How many hatchlings survive?
Even without poachers, the odds for a baby turtle are poor. On land, eggs and hatchlings are eaten by raccoons, coyotes, feral dogs and pigs, ghost crabs, vultures and frigate birds. Once the hatchlings reach the water, fish and sharks take many more.
Hatching success also tends to be low on arribada beaches themselves, because later nesters dig up earlier nests and the crowded sand can breed microbes. At one arribada at Playa Nancite in Costa Rica, about 11.5 million eggs were laid and only 0.2 per cent hatched.
How many turtles survive to adulthood is hard to measure, because it takes years for a turtle to mature and they range across whole oceans. A figure of around one in a thousand is often quoted by conservation groups, but it is a rough rule of thumb rather than a precise statistic. What matters is that the species depends on huge numbers of eggs to make up for these losses, which is why taking most of a beach's eggs in one season does so much harm.
Guards are only part of the answer
Armed patrols protect eggs on the nights they are there, but they do not change why people poach. Researchers and filmmakers who have spent time in these communities point out that the villagers are often portrayed as criminals while they have few other ways to make a living. Programmes that have worked elsewhere usually combine enforcement with jobs: paying locals to guard nests, run hatcheries or guide tourists, so that a living turtle is worth more than a sack of eggs.
Other threats also need attention: turtles drowning in fishing nets, coastal development, artificial lights that lure hatchlings away from the sea, and plastic waste. Nesting at Mexico's main arribada beaches is reported to have grown considerably since the 1990 ban, a sign that protection works when it is sustained, even though the species is still declining in other parts of its range.
For another example of animals and people working against poaching, read about young gorillas dismantling snares in Rwanda.
How visitors can help
- Never buy or eat turtle eggs or meat, and avoid restaurants or bars that offer them.
- Watch an arribada with a licensed local guide or turtle camp, and follow their rules about distance and torches.
- Keep beaches dark at night. Use red light or none at all, and never use camera flash near nesting turtles or emerging hatchlings.
- Do not pick up hatchlings or "help" them to the sea unless a conservation worker asks you to.
- Report poaching to local authorities or to Profepa rather than confronting poachers yourself.
Sources: National Geographic, 30 November 2015: Sea turtles might be threatened, but so are their hunters; International Business Times via India Environment Portal, 20 August 2015: Mexico: Drones to be deployed to curb poaching spree of turtle eggs; Wikipedia, Olive ridley sea turtle; viral photo shared by LADbible and True Activist.
we humans really are idiots
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