01 | Index
02 | Location
Mexican state of Michoacán; Colola beach
03 | Header
Extinction Avoided: Mexico’s Black Turtles Back from the Brink
04 | Deck
Against all odds, the Eastern Pacific green, or black sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), a subpopulation of green turtles, has made a remarkable comeback in the Mexican state of Michoacán. With nesting numbers soaring and the population considered one of the healthiest globally, this is a story of hope and a testament to the success of community-based conservation.
05 | Why Now?
Update: My fixer on the ground in Mexico has received advanced notice that green turtles are going to be down-listed from “endangered” to “least concern” with the The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), due in large part to the black turtle recovery.
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This story is a counter-narrative to the often-depressing news about environmental crises. It demonstrates that with dedicated “community-based conservation,” wild animal populations can be pulled back from the brink. The numbers are telling: In 1988, as few as 78 female black turtles nested along the Michoacán coast of Western Mexico; in recent years, the number of nesting females is now estimated to be around 100,000 who collectively lay between 30,000 to 85,000 nests in a season with millions of hatchlings, a clear sign that the conservation efforts are working.
This is not just a tale of survival, but of a once-threatened species thriving. The story’s once doom-and-gloom focus has now shifted from a desperate battle to a hopeful strategic challenge. It’s an opportunity to showcase how communities are building a sustainable future where both people and wildlife can benefit through innovative approaches to conservation.
Still, this story evolves from a precarious past: Historically, the black turtle faced threats from egg harvesting and fishing quotas that permitted the capture of hundreds of turtles and thousands of eggs each year for consumption; this decimation of the population was memorialized for community members and passersby in the “world’s largest turtle graveyard,” a pile of sun-bleached turtle shells depicting the scale of death.
06 | Story Angles
1) Indigenous Nahua Community
This storyline features the Nahua people of Michoacán, Mexico, where the primary nesting beach for the black sea turtle, Colola Beach, is located. Due to long-term collection of eggs and meat for large-scale trade, this subspecies was decimated. In the 1970s, up to 70,000 eggs were harvested nightly from Colola Beach before the Nahuas stopped egg collecting and adopted conservation measures to save the species—all the while illuminating a profound shift in the community’s perspective and actions.
The Nahua embraced conservation as adult hunters became conservationists and local children relocated nests to a protected hatchery. The net result is Colola Beach recuperating over 40+ years to become one of the primary nesting beaches for green turtles worldwide. Moreover, the Nahua community has locally managed the project for decades with scientific support from researchers at the University of Michoacán and financial support from a US organization, SEE Turtles, which also brings volunteer groups each year. Local leaders Angelo Oliveros Ramirez, Russell Leiva, Hector Diaz Orcino, and Jose Luis Leiva Valencia, among others, started working with this project as kids collecting eggs to bring to a hatchery, and remain at the heart of this comeback.
2) Population’s Comeback from Near Extinction
This storyline centers on the black sea turtle subpopulation and their dramatic decline from an estimated 25,000 nesting females in the 1960s to a critically low number of just 78 nesting females in 1988 due to relentless egg harvesting, and hunting for meat, fisheries and other products. The transformation is a remarkable population rebound, with the number of nesting females increasing to an estimated total of around 105,000 today.
This comeback is a testament to decades of sustained, coordinated conservation efforts, and this population is now considered one of the healthiest sea turtle populations in the world. University of Michoacán researcher Dr. Carlos Delgado, who has worked on this beach since the 1990s, believes that this population has reached or surpassed pre-Industrial levels, a unique phenomenon with sea turtles, and an extremely rare victory in conservation of any wildlife worldwide.
3) Non-extractive Uses for Long-Term Sustainability
This storyline centres on the Nahua community and their collaboration with biologist Carlos Delgado-Trejo: together they have dedicated the last 35 years to saving the black turtle. Their pioneering attempts to introduce “non-extractive uses” for the turtles, such as well-managed ecotourism and innovative financial schemes like “payment for ecosystem services,” provided local jobs and revenue, creating a new incentive for communities to protect the turtles.
A secondary storyline may reveal the concentrated efforts of SEE Turtles, a US-based organization co-founded by late turtle biologist Dr. Wallace J. Nichols (pictured) and conservationist Brad Nahill. Dr. Nichols, before launching SEE Turtles, was deeply involved in efforts to study and protect the black turtle throughout their range, helping to launch programs across Mexico to reduce the hunting of this turtle. SEE Turtles has been the sole international funder of the work at Colola for more than five years and has brought six groups with more than sixty people to visit this beach, generating tens of thousands of dollars for the local community and conservation efforts over the past decade.
07 | Photography – In Progress
