• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 06 / 19 / 2011

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By Zenia Regalado. Experts have sighted the first sea turtles that reach the coasts of Antonio and Caleta del Piojo beaches in the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, to start spawning, as part of their breeding season that begins in May and extends to September.

Osmany Borrego Fernández, head of the program of public use and environmental education in Guanahacabibes National Park, said that all along this week they will carry out a training session to workers of the facility and forest rangers, run by the Center for Marine Research that since 1992 sponsors a project to monitor these chelonians.

On June 22 students of Biology of the University of Havana will travel to the abovementioned Biosphere Reserve to participate in the research study. The students will stay at Antonio, El resguardo, Perjuicio, Caleta del piojo, La Barca and El holandés beaches until August, and will be divided in groups that will rotate every 15 days.

The locals will also join this experience of saving these animals, which contributes to making people aware of the importance to preserve species like the green turtle, the loggerhead (caguama) and the hawksbill (carey), whose little breed are in grave danger due to human predators and animals.

Borrego Fernández noted the significance of the participation of the locals, since it helps reducing the killing of these chelonians for their meat.

Children of the schools near the area also join the project; they visit some of these beaches of the peninsula to take the newborn turtles back to the sea.

The specialists of the park are also interested in relating high school students to this helpful task for nature.

The top month for the reproduction is July, although this year it is predicted to be lower, according to the periods studied.

Sea turtles mate in certain areas of the ocean, and then females go to the coasts to dig the nests and spawn an average of 100 eggs each.

If the eggs are not destroyed by the water or the predators they will hatch in about two months.

Scientific and social institutions in Mexico Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are interested in this preservation labor carried out in the national park, whose workers participate in other research studies as well, some of them include the Maja de Santamaria, Cuba's largest boa.

Source: Guerrillero