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Let's Go2Vallarta - Articles The Bay’s Extraordinary Fauna:
Leatherback, its name is telltale of some of its characteristics, instead of a bony shell, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh, it is therefore the turtle with the most fat content in its body, which in turn allows her (excuse me, in Spanish turtle is a female word and I would rather refer to her as she rather than “it”) to survive not only in tropical zones’ waters but into temperate waters as well; they are therefore found from the Antarctic to the North Sea Let me tell you more about this species, the leatherback turtle is one of the oldest reptiles dating back to the cretaceous period110 million years ago though its imminent extinction could happen while you and I are still around. That is why whatever we can do is of great importance! Can we tip the scale in the opposite way? Yes we can! The world is starting to realize it has to mend its ways, we are seeing it happening.. Well, here we were, the chivalry-three baywatchers; Federico the painter; Petr Myska, the biologist; and me. We were present for this happening and wanted to record this moment but there was no one to take our picture.
As the sun started to set, our friends, the turtle camp watchers brought out many, many (about one to two thousand) Pacific-Ridley turtles and gave them to those of us who had already washed our hands with seawater and sand, as those first moments of their migration carry a rich imprint of their whereabouts that remains with them throughout their lifetime. They will recognize this place as theirs to come back to and we do not want to contaminate them in any way. Then the 47 leatherback baby turtles were brought out and we lovingly placed them on their way to what many call “the long night in the lives of turtles” a period of development about which we do not know much as yet. Two more nests of leatherback turtles were spotted this season and, although it is a tough challenge, we will do all that we can to revert their doomed fate and let future generations share the planet with these extraordinary creatures. Eduardo Rincón-Gallardo
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Among the thousands of Pacific-Ridley Turtles we release daily during the fall and winter – last year we released half a million babies – at dusk, which is the best time to liberate them in order to improve their chances of overcoming the threat of predators on this, the first stage of their life’s struggle against extinction. There was an extraordinary news to us, the natives of this extraordinary bay of two ecosystems, two time zones, two states and at least two dozen nationalities; the news was, on November 13, 2008, a leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) was spotted laying eggs on the beach of Bahía del Sol, in Nuevo Vallarta, and today January 17, 2009 the eggs had hatched and, out of the 78 initial eggs, after two months of gestation we had 47 healthy leatherbacks turtles this morning! 
Suddenly we spotted a beautiful flock of five female migrating marine mammals coming in our direction and they were more than willing to take our picture. I sure hope these kindly wonderful creatures continue to migrate yearly to our shores, I would gladly keep them all year-round and caringly see them survive through our intense and thunderous, hot and wet tropical extremes (I get carried away by my interactions with some creatures, but, as a naturalist, my views are to be respected).
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