Expedicionarios Tortuga Marina - Sea Turtle Expeditionaries #nature #seaturtles #wildlife #barnacles

They want to go back to the city, they want to go back to the city, don't let me go. We've never seen this before. Since I was a child, I've always been interested in fauna, mainly marine fauna. It was always my dream to work with animals and I decided to look for a way to protect sea turtles in this area. We didn't have any information about what was going on here. I knew that sea turtles were being sold and I said, well, they have to be from this area. We can't take care of or invest in something we don't know and even less if we don't know how to value it. The exit is usually around 5 in the morning. In about 40 minutes we'll be on the beach. We'll take the boat down to the water and from there we'll move another 40 to 45 minutes to the most active area of the sea turtles. Biologist Alan Zabala has been studying sea turtles for 10 years with the Protection and Conservation of Wildlife Program of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Regional Development, CIDIR, in Sinaloa. For us, the sea turtle represents many things. Everything we talk about, the value, the importance of preserving a species that has survived even the extinction of dinosaurs, and that important genetic legacy, the cultural importance it has for some civilizations in Mexico and other countries. Along with Alan, veterinarian Paula Aguilar and biologist Renato Leal work. I've been in both parts. I was a fisherman and now I'm doing research. I work in conservation. I have the opportunity to work in the laboratory, in the field, with students, with children. While they prepare the equipment, biologist Katherine Hart joins the expedition. I'm a researcher at the Sea Turtle Network, which is part of the Sea Turtle Group of California. I'm here today to collaborate. We are in a group that collaborates with the IPN and the Department of Wildlife. The expeditionaries are ready to start monitoring. This time, in the San Ignacio Navachiste Macapule Lagoon System, habitat of numerous species of sea turtles. Currently, we have seven or eight species of sea turtles, depending on the author. Only one of these eight species is endemic to Australia, and the other seven can be found in Mexico. All species of sea turtles are protected by national and international laws. They are organisms that are at higher trophic levels, and that is why they are also used as sentinel species of the environment. That is to say, if we monitor the health of a sea turtle, this organism will give us information about the health of an ecosystem in general. In the seasons of March to July, Alan and his team also carry out monitoring in the high seas. Since sea turtles are reptiles, they need the sun to heat their blood. The temperature of their body is the same as that of the environment, but also when they are eating, they need to heat their blood to metabolize all the food faster. So, they have that habit of floating, going up to the surface, staying floating, practically asleep, so that the sun is hitting them on the shell. The fishermen say that they dry out with the sun, and then when they want to submerge, they have a bit of trouble diving. And that is the moment when we take advantage of the net, the net of the hook or the ring, or throw ourselves into the water. It is fun, although there are risks, which we always try to minimize, so as not to hit us, so as not to hit the animal, not to stress them. And well, these techniques, I think, comply with that. We do not hurt the turtles. If we are trying to take care of them, it would be illogical for us to use some kind of methodology that would cause them any kind of damage. If the turtle is fine, if we see that everything went well in the evaluation, in its place, and that it has all the capacities to 100, then at that very moment all the samples are taken, it is marked and its biometrics are registered, and it is released immediately. The fishermen in this area are very friendly, they really like to live with people, share. We are going to ask them how the fishing went. When we approached this boat, we noticed that there was a strange behavior of them, it was noticeable that they were hiding something. I could not see what was on the boat. However, you were able to see and record with your cameras that there was a turtle inside the boat. We are here, and at least they are uncomfortable and leave, at least when we are here. Is it the same thing that happens in the nesting areas? Yes. There is the biologist collecting the nests to take them to incubate, and there is the hatcher who is looting the nests, and they are almost together, to see who collects more, and it is to make them competition. But if there was no competition, it would be even worse. The first time you are with a turtle nesting, there are the stars and the wave, and it is doing something that it has done who knows how many times. And you can somehow share that experience with it, and not only that, you can protect it during the process, and ensure that the effort that it is making comes to an end, that the cubs manage to get to the sea, and it does not end up in a canteen in the corner, right? I mean, what a horrible thing! I mean, such a special animal, so enduring, so wise in its ability to survive, and all that effort is going to end up in a glass with a crown and eggs? In the distance, a dolphin is observed, seemingly lifeless. It is an adult specimen that we found in one of the sand banks, stranded or dead. We are only going to keep the data of the record, the geographical location of that stranding, and well, one more record of a dead animal in the area. Something catches Catherine's attention. Here, this Catherine found a shell of a dolphin turtle. So here they come, they sacrifice the animal, they remove all the part of the breast, the chest, the head and fins, and they only leave the shell. The marks are very evident when these animals are gutted, because the marks of the knife remain. So they take everything, they leave the viscera, they take all the meat, and the meat is in the fins, in the shoulders, and they take all the part of the head, and the chest, which is what they call it, the breast, they cook it too. All this, shark heads, small sizes, hammerhead shark. We will continue to work with the fishermen and with the people, so that they do not leave this garbage, and that they become aware of the importance of keeping the beach clean, since with the winds, the tide, this garbage will sometimes hit the sea, and the turtles eat the plastic bags, confuse them with jellyfish, these pieces of nets. If they stay in the water, they continue to catch fish, or other species that can drown, like the turtles or the dolphins that we just saw. So all this garbage, in the end, even if it is here on the beach, due to the action of the wind, the tides, sometimes it is dragged to the sea. Well, it is a very beautiful place, but very dirty. The team arrives at a camp to meet with some fishermen, those who decided to join the conservation of the turtles. We always come in a friendly, friendly way, we put on their shirts too, we know that their need is very strong. But what I do is try to raise their awareness, exposing their problems, and show them that at one time I was also a fisherman. We are now here in the camp with our fellow fishermen, with the monitoring groups. We are going to go for the turtles, and I think we are going to have a very good closing of our day, and then we will continue working in the laboratory. I live in the turtle fishing community, and I dedicate myself to shrimp and fish. And in a period of June, July, to December, January, we dedicate ourselves to the monitoring of sea turtles. For example, we went out to fish for sharks, and since we were working there, if the day was calm and there was no wind, we would go out to catch turtles. In an hour at most, we would bring 15 or 20 animals on the boat, because that way I could study my children. And the most valuable thing about this work that we are doing, is that it is always accompanied by the fishing communities, who have always made a traditional use of sea turtles, and now that they are in danger of extinction, they help us protect them, and they help us do these studies, these monitoring, and they give us key information about the abundance, the presence, and the places where we can locate these organisms. One day they sent a few biologists, they sent them to look for me, and I don't know why, but they sent them to look for me. And since then, nine years ago, I started working with them, and I have been passing on as little as I know, I have been passing on the knowledge, and well, there we take it. What a bear, what a bear with the turtles. Well, it is to support this cause, because honestly, this cause is the one that should be more supported. If not economically, at least to motivate, more of a motive, of emotion, and to see how beautiful are animals that are many years old, and yet many people are not appreciating it. We leave the network for about 24 hours, which is what a typical monitoring lasts, we use the day and the night to make the captures, and we are checking the network continuously, every hour or every two hours, to prevent a turtle from being trapped, and to run the risk of drowning. In this way we have captured the black turtles, and the Caribbean turtles, within the lagoon systems. Since the start of the turtle conservation programs in Mexico, the focus was mainly on the work of the nesting areas. So, the life cycle of the sea turtle, being so complex, which includes nesting areas, feeding areas, breeding areas, foraging areas, as is the case with the Navajiste lagoon system, we decided to start this project with monitoring, through the support of the fishing communities, who have all the experience, they have the empirical information, and with the alliance with them, we have managed to advance significantly in the knowledge of the sea turtles in these sites. And what we are doing, more than anything, is to exchange knowledge about nesting areas, with feeding areas, because this is really where they are divided. Many times, people from a nesting area do not understand the work they have to do in feeding areas, and vice versa. This serves to complement the information that has been generated for more than 40 years in the nesting areas, and can help us to effectively conserve the sea turtles by covering different components of the life cycle of these species. That is why we monitor these sites, in these feeding areas, breeding and development areas, for different species of sea turtles. In the case of Sinaloa, around 40 years of work has already been done in the nesting areas of sea turtles, and now, with this project that we have started, we are already 10 years old in the north of Sinaloa, with feeding areas. The samples obtained are analyzed in the CIDIR laboratories. Sea turtles are very long-lived animals, their life cycle is very long, so they also have another characteristic, which is that they are species that are in the highest part of the food chain, so they consume many organisms that are lower in the chain, and this makes them bioaccumulate, so everything that has a chemical or a contaminant, they tend to concentrate it. It is a single planet where everything is communicated, and what affects one species can affect another, including us. Well, the most important mycobacterium in humans is the one that causes tuberculosis. We have detected this bacterium in some infections in sea turtles. We do not know how old this disease can be, because in reality here in the area it had never been studied, so we are evaluating it. We already have contamination data from heavy metals, we have contamination data from bacteria, which are pathogens for sea turtles, but which can also be pathogens for us. We are investigating how serious these problems are, what they are and to what extent they can be transmitted between individuals, populations or even humans. In the rehabilitation area, many of the turtles receive the opportunity to survive. We do a general evaluation to see how critical their health is, that is why several laboratory tests are also done, and we give them treatment depending on the situation. If it is a wound, we will focus on a surgery. If it is an infection problem, we will focus on improving their general condition, giving them the right treatment, and above all, that the diagnosis is correct. We place plates on the fins to identify the animal, and we place it in a pond with seawater, and food begins to be supplied. The diet is varied, but it mainly consists of squid, fish, shrimp, and this is the way we keep the animals during the time they are in rehabilitation. Lately, there have been many cases of very small turtles, in terms of size, of sizes of about 20 or 30 centimeters of shell, that get caught in coals, in fishing nets, in pieces of garbage, and what they do is, by not being able to manipulate anything with their fins, they are fins that are completely closed, they try to escape, and many times they get more tangled. So what usually happens is that they get stuck in the base of their previous fin, and it tightens. They try to escape, they pull those cords, those nets, and they tighten, tighten, tighten, until the circulation is cut off. So this causes the tissues to deteriorate, and it causes a necrosis. So, depending on the severity of the problem, there have been times when they have to be amputated. Sometimes they arrive with only a piece of the fin, they have already lost it, because of this process, and you just have to remove the infected part, because they obviously acquire many infectious problems, and try to save the animal's life. The last step is to return the species to the sea. This is the case of Beto, a very special turtle. I couldn't identify what that yellow object was. Using a camera with a zoom, I was able to see that it was a turtle entangled in a rib, one of the fins that we call here, which are used to store legumes, mainly. We were very surprised to see the damage it had on its fin, because it was very, very inflamed, and it was surprising how that synthetic material was around its fin, its neck, and inside its mouth. I took a knife and started cutting the fibers of the rib that were in its fin, to eliminate that tension that was there in the fin. Then I said, well, we have already released the fin, there is not much problem, but when I tried to remove these fibers from the rib, from its mouth, I realized that it was not easy, because I could see the remains of the rib in its mouth, but I didn't know how deep it was. So I remembered that an adequate way to be able to manipulate the animal was to put it upside down, and I started to stimulate this turtle to move its mouth, and I started to pull. I pulled very slowly to avoid damaging the internal organs, and the surprise was that every time the turtle moved its mouth, I pulled little by little, and it started to come out piece by piece, piece by piece, piece by piece. And there were times when the turtle got tired, and I really didn't know whether to stop or keep insisting to remove those fibers. I came to think that if things didn't go well, a surgery had to be done. So I insisted again, and the strength of these animals caught my attention, because it seemed that the turtle knew that I was helping it. So we spent more than half an hour forcing it to make that movement, and removing the fiber. We started to see that pieces of the rib came out, bathed in gastric juices. That's when I got even more alarmed, because at first I thought that it was only in the front part of the esophagus. And once all that fragment came out, the last part, we put it in the normal position, and we started to laugh, because the turtle at that moment, its reaction was, well, thank you, I'm leaving. It started to move, to move, to want to get out of the boat. Obviously we couldn't release it like that. We had to supply medication and control the problem it had in its fin, and that it didn't have an infection that would cause more problems. After almost a year of rehabilitation, we can say that it is in perfect condition. It gained several kilos of weight. It was named Beto el Boticario. A little bit of humor with the name, because of the situation, that they took a lot of material out of its mouth, and it came out, and it came out, and it came out. We said, well, when is it going to stop? And then Renato came up with the name. Oh, yes, like the magician, Beto el Boticario. It stayed. We started to call it Beto, Beto. It stayed Beto. And that's how we spent some time here in El Cidir, and now we are practically ready to release it. Let's hope that its life story lasts much longer, right? And then we can have more news about it. The story repeats itself, and Beto is about to do what he did at birth. This is completely unusual. It stayed on the beach and didn't walk, but it didn't come back. You had to do your thanks. You have to do it. It requires a lot of hands, a lot of will, and you have to like it a lot because it's very tiring, sometimes with heat, with rain, with mosquitoes, sometimes with cold, and it's a 24-hour job in the field, and going back to work in the laboratory, maybe another 24 hours to process the samples, and well, the spirit doesn't go down. But here we always have many volunteers, and we have many students of practice, social services, master's students, and I think they have also been a fundamental part to continue doing this work. And how do we keep the team working? Well, always reminding them of the purpose of all this. I think that's the biggest motivation. We are in this because we like it, and when we remember why we are here, we decide that we want to stay here, and keep working hard. Everything is part of a chain. If we break a link in the chain, the balance that exists is broken. So there are the turtles, we have to take care of them, not just the turtles, all the species, especially those that are in danger of extinction, take care of them so that the balance in life continues. They work very hard all year so that people come and eat the turtles here in Sinaloa. And it's a shame, not because they don't earn as much, but it's a shame all the effort that these people make, and I hope they understand how much they fight, how much they sacrifice, so that these animals grow up. How much my work is really helping. So sometimes there are many thoughts that run through your mind, but I think it's a grain of sand. Maybe right now we don't notice the impact as it is, and you say, well, I'm saving one and they catch another 15. But probably in another place they are releasing thousands of young, so together we are making a difference. And maybe later the children, the children of those fishermen who are now capturing, for the reasons you want, maybe their children will say, no, I don't want to do it anymore. My son, for example, right now, look at the turtle, ah, it's a turtle of this size, he already identifies it, something that I, at his age, I looked at it, ah, it's one of 500 pesos, it's one of 600, that's how we knew it when we were younger. And now, no, they already look at it with their name and even baptize it themselves. Well, Mexico is still in time, but they are not only from Mexico. I mean, it's not fair that they are only from Mexico. They are from everywhere. Just by working together we are going to save things. And it's not a country's responsibility, it's the responsibility of the people. We want the world to also know what is here, the wealth, the biodiversity, but also the problems and look for solutions to those problems. Above all, we want to continue generating human resources of quality. We want to continue working with students because as more people work and study these topics, we can protect the species, the protected natural areas, and maintain these organisms, all these species that are at risk for future generations, so that our children and the children of our children continue to know them and we can maintain that heritage that we have in Mexico and that is part of our planet.