Nesting and Hatching

 

The only time Bonaire’s sea turtles come ashore is when adult females emerge to lay their nests. Each year they arrive, sometimes from thousands of kilometers away. They return to the beaches where they were born decades before. Over a period of weeks the females and adult males congregate in the open water around Bonaire, engaging in courtship and mating. Beginning in April and continuing through December, females make repeated crawls onto beaches where they lay their nests. Each turtle will lay on average 3 to 6 clutches of eggs, depositing 100 to 180 eggs per nest, depending on species. Once a nest is laid, the female returns to the sea, leaving the eggs on their own, to hatch in about 60 days. The entire nest of eggs hatches at the same time and the baby turtles scramble together to the sea. These hatchlings face many predators on land and in the sea, such as ghost crabs, fish and birds. 

Bonaire provides nesting habitat for three species of marine turtles: hawksbill, green, and loggerhead turtles. Hawksbills are responsible for the most activity and probably deposit more than 50 nests island-wide. Green turtles and loggerheads lay fewer nests, perhaps less than 20 for each species. 

Most turtle nests are laid on the beaches that lie along the northeast coast of Klein Bonaire, on and around "No Name" beach. The importance of this area for turtle nesting helped the effort to purchase the island from its private owners in 1999, spearheaded by the Foundation Preservation Klein Bonaire. Klein Bonaire now belongs to the people of Bonaire, and is a protected area. 

 

 

 

Hatchlings make their way to the sea - photo STCB