Riley Sea Turtle

We are heading North to get out of hurricane alley for the summer season. We will spend the late Spring and Summer in the Sea of Cortes. Our plans are to spend as little money as possible and hang out mostly in the water. We are told that it gets quite hot up there only time will tell.
This blog is going to be about the sea turtles that have surrounded us on the Gold Coast. Hopefully you will find it interesting. Just the shear numbers and different things we have seen have had us asking questions and trying to seek out information about these very slow moving creatures.
There are 4 species that we have encountered. The green turtle, hawksbill, leatherback and olive ridley.
The Hawksbill sea turtle is 3 – 4 feet long weighing 30 – 100 pounds. They are brown in colour. These turtles are nearly extinct and have just 2 beaches for its only nesting sites. There is a hotel at the site and in December when the eggs hatch guests can help get the babies to the water. This is done by shooing the birds and predators away. Not picking them up. It is used as an educational opportunity by park guides.
The Olive Ridley are far from extinct they are everywhere and they were the ones we were dodging. They are the smallest sea turtle only 2-2.5 feet long.
The leatherback turtle is rarely seen but we saw we think at least 6. They are 7 – 8 feet long weighing a ton. They looked like sea turtles on steroids.\
The Green turtle also seem fairly plentiful as we passed through the area near Ixtapa.
They are about 3 – 4 feet long.
Sea turtles reach breeding age in 6 to 8 years. Many factors influence the return to the nesting beaches, such as "imprinting", kind of sand, temperature, streams, etc. The presence of a metallic mineral in the turtle's brain is a theory.
Sea Turtles are a unique species. A female Sea Turtle can lay up to 200 eggs at once. Cold weather is fatal to the hatching of the eggs: it can kill the turtle in the egg if the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. After 50 days in the eggs, the turtles start breaking out of their shells. A Sea Turtle's body shell is made from an inner layer of scales. About only 5 out of the 200 Sea Turtles will survive from the dangerous waters; that is the reason so many eggs are laid.
Sea Turtles do not need any training whatsoever to swim because they are born with that ability already. Green Sea Turtles are carnivores, eating fish, birds, and amphibians. Sea Turtles are very sensitive to sound. The Sea Turtle's eardrum lays flat on its head behind its eye. Sea Turtles have better senses of smell than a shark or a dog. The bad part about them is that they are color-blind. Leatherback Sea Turtles have high concentrations of red blood cells. Their muscles are stronger than a human's.
Interesting facts:
Most Sea Turtles are nomads and travel about 1,300 miles a day! Leatherback Sea Turtles have the longest migration of all Sea Turtles.
The Hawksbill Sea Turtle is probably one of the Sea Turtle you see most. They are given this name because of their hawk shaped bill. However, the Hawksbill Sea Turtle also is the most endangered!
A Sea Turtle's shell is tough as a rock, so when diving into waters it would never crack.
The Leatherback's staple food is the jelly fish.
The question Why do we not see young turtles was brought up on the SSB Net one evening. A research boat with University students gave us the answer. They go far out to sea and hide under floating vegetation. Who knows.

I was also fortunate enough to see a swordfish right beside the boat just under the water. It was about 6 feet in length. It was gone before Ken could see it. It is the way I want to see them as I really do not want to catch one while fishing.

We are now in La Cruz (Puerto Vallart) awaiting Alanna and her friends. We are installing the new Genset and the company with the battery charger is sending us a larger unit. Hopefully our electrical problems will be a thing of the past.