You know the sea turtles come to Mazatlán’s beaches to lay their eggs. It’s one of the joys of living here, observing these beautiful creatures coming to shore, then losing their last ounce of energy to return to the sea.

Sadly yet fortunately, most of the turtle eggs are rescued by the aquarium staff or the other turtle sanctuaries in town. Once they hatch, they are released into the wild, in hopes they’ll procreate and come back to our shores once again. It is estimated that only one in 1000 hatchlings will reach adulthood. Click on any photo to enlarge it or view a slideshow.

During the Gran Maratón del Pacífico each year is a huge public release of baby sea turtles. It was not my first choice for photographing, since there are so many smaller, more private releases that might give better photo ops, or so I thought. But, my friend wanted to go, so I joined in. It was, indeed, a huge mess of people. And, it was so joyous to watch the faces of the kids as they released the baby turtles.

The mother turtles are often about a meter long. The babies look so very similar to their mothers, and it’s hard to tell the size in the photos, but they are maybe three inches long. The sunset colors in the sky sure improved the photogeneity of the event.

If you haven’t joined one of the turtle releases, you owe it to yourself to do so. And it is a definite must for the grandkids or family who visit during the holidays!