In Punta Chame, on the Pacific coast of Panama, the turtle egg hatching season has begun.
The olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), a species classified as "vulnerable", placed on the red list of threatened species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), come to lay between June and August on the beaches of this region. seaside resort located about a hundred kilometers north of Panama.
To cope with the dangers of the beach - predators, the tide, but also villagers - volunteers organize themselves to hatch the eggs in complete safety.
« Si la tortue place le nid dans un endroit où il n’est pas en danger, où la marée ne risque pas de le découvrir, il est laissé là et on n’y touche pas », explique Sofia, 16 ans, bénévole chez l’association Tortubanks. Si l’endroit choisi n’est pas adéquat, selon les membres de l’association, les œufs sont récupérés après le départ de la mère et entreposés dans la nurserie à quelques mètres de la plage, dans l’attente de l’éclosion quelque deux mois plus tard. Tortubanks héberge ainsi cette saison 23 nids, d’environ 100 œufs chacun. Sur le sable où les œufs sont enfouis, un petit panneau indique la date d’éclosion estimée en fonction de la date de ponte.
“The objective is to raise awareness” among the population and “to relocate the nests in order to protect them from natural predators,” says Pilar Crespo, Sofia's mother.
"It is also very frequent that in the village people come at night to dig nests to eat the eggs or sell them".
In the nursery they are thus “protected”, she adds.
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After removing them one by one from the nest, removing their shells, Sofia and her mother place the baby turtles in a tub filled with sand and carefully transport them ten meters from the shore.
Instinctively, the turtles turn to the ocean and hurriedly approach it to be washed away by the waves.
Studies cited by Plastic Oceans and Sea Turtle Conservancy suggest that from birth, turtles learn the “magnetic signature,” the coordinates of their native beach.
Thus, the fertilized adult females will return to lay their eggs where they were born.
According to the NGO World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), only one of these turtles in 1,000 will reach adulthood, the others will have been victims of predators, accidental fishing or human stalking for their shell.