Thanks to the lack of human activity around beaches due to the coronavirus pandemic, a record number of endangered turtles have hatched in Mexico.
Tortugueros del Desemboque, a conversation group among the indigenous Seri community of the Mexican state of Sonora, said that it released a massive 2,500 baby olive ridley sea turtles that hatched on the Mancha Blanca beach in El Desemboque, a town in Sonora state, into the Gulf of California this year.
This number is significant because it is almost five times the number of turtles that are released each year – the community confirmed that it generally releases about 500 to 1,000 of these species each year into the sea.
The lack of tourists on beaches coupled with low fishing rates due to the pandemic restrictions enabled this feat.
“This year has been one of the hardest for our community. The pandemic brought sickness and death to our people, and complicated the economic situation here,” group coordinator Mayra Estrella Astorga told Arizona Public Media.
“That’s why we are so happy that, in the middle of this tragedy, this miracle of nature happened — as a result of fewer fishing boats and tourists, but also through the efforts of the community.”
These endangered species of turtles lay their eggs between May and September in many beaches in Mexican cities.
However, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List, the species has seen a 30 to 50 percent reduction of global population size in recent decades.
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