Sea Turtle Sanctuary at Maya Jade
One of the beautiful benefits of having the Hotel Maya Jade in this community we serve in is that they rescue and protect sea turtle eggs. Each night when on the beach, you will often spot a motorcycle speeding on the beach without lights. These are most likely poachers, trying to find sea turtle eggs so they can sell them at top dollar for people to eat. They are considered a delicacy for those with enough money to afford them. Maya Jade realizes how important it is to protect these eggs from being eaten so that these baby sea turtles are given a fighting chance! We don’t want these beautiful creatures to become extinct! They have employees who find the eggs on the beach before poachers get to them and they move them to the safety of the Maya Jade hatchery. Once they hatch, they are collected and put in water to keep them hydrated until they can be released when the tide conditions are most optimal for their survival. Maya Jade allows its guests to help with their releasing, but its very important to not touch the sea turtles so that we don’t accidentally harm them or cause issue for them due to our sunscreens, lotions, etc.
We were lucky enough to be there during hatching and releasing season and it was such a beautiful experience to watch and participate in! It literally reduced some of us to tears. A huge thanks to the Josiah-Sharla McCarty crew for being in charge of the hatchery while the main caretakers were out of town. It has been such a neat experience for them to be involved in their care in this way! We love Maya Jade and we love these beautiful sea turtles!
Once hatched, they pile on top of each other to keep warm. Sometimes it looks like they are dead, but after waiting you’ll see them breathe and wiggle around a bit!
Everyone lined up to help release the turtles! They ask us not to cross the line after letting them go so we don’t accidentally step on any of them.
They give out the baby turtles in a bowl so we don’t touch them and accidentally transfer toxins to them.
time to be set free!
Look at them go!
Goodbye beautiful creatures! We wish you luck!