Bonaire is home to three of the world’s seven species of sea turtles. Green and hawksbill turtles can be seen year-round, while loggerheads generally visit only during the nesting season.
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. Each turtle will lay on average three to six 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.
Most turtle nests are laid on the beaches that lie along the northeast coast of Klein Bonaire. 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.
All photos courtesy of Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire except where indicated.
