To paraphrase Pogo - "They has met the enemy, and he is us."

"I know who steals the eggs, and I know who buys them." Alejandro smiled when I asked why they weren't stopped then.

"One morning when I left my house there was a headless turtle in my front yard. And one night in one of the local cantinas a big hombre with huge bushy bigotes said to me, "Why do you waste time protecting the turtles? People need money."

Now, Alejandro, not a man who is easily intimidated. He's not only faced, but overcome the threat of death. He's a cancer survivor, and that has a bit to do with his concern for not only the sea turtles, but all life. Including his own.

Those who have never lived in a small town may not understand why him, or anyone else who can't retire at night to a secure fortress might be hesitant to openly try to oppose those who operate outside the law and under the cover of darkness.

Others face the dangers too.

Back in 1989 in the poor Mexican State of Oaxaca documentary film maker Bill Livingston and his wife, posing as tourists, filmed the illegal slaughter of many of the 300 marine turtles who died in one place on a single day. Using a small concealed video camera they recorded the poachers approaching shore in small pangas loaded to the gunwales with live turtles.

The ensuing events are difficult to watch but if you can locate a copy of the National Geographic Society film "The Mexicans—In their Own Words" you’ll see the carnage. As long as they seemed to be non-threatening the Livingstons were permitted to observe, but when a professional grade still camera was raised, the poachers became quite upset.

Their driver had been instructed to wait, with the engine running, and the Livingstons dashed to the car as the poachers turned the handguns they were using to execute turtles to their direction.

Fittingly, the building that held that slaughter is now a turtle sanctuary and study center.

Sometimes the good guys do win; but not often enough.

On the local beaches poachers raid nests to gather eggs to sell for a current Colima black market price of three to seven pesos each. Some nests hold up to one hundred eggs. Do the math; by robbing four or five nests a night, even if they contain only half this many eggs, an unskilled young man can make quite a payday for relatively easy work. The ones I fault are those who buy the eggs.

The initial purchaser is usually a restaurant owner in one of the beach areas, but the supply line reaches all the way to Colima and Guadalajara and other towns and cities near the coast.

Why eat turtle eggs? For their imagined or reputed value as a natural aphrodisiac. Turtle eggs are very high in artery-clogging cholesterol so they may in fact cause the opposite effect. Perhaps that’s the turtle’s revenge.

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported that the Mexican Environmental Education Fund recently launched a series of potentially effective magazine ads to discourage consumption of sea turtle eggs. Playboy model Dorismar is featured. In one ad she announces, “My man doesn’t need to eat turtle eggs.” In another she poses near a sign reading “Sea turtle eggs DO NOT increase sexual potency.” That should be a wake-up call to the more macho types.

But there are many other threats from humans.

One is the rise in nighttime human traffic on the nesting beaches. As tourism and development increase, beach-lovers flock to formerly deserted nesting beaches. A romantic moonlight stroll along the shore might cause immense, though unintentional harm by packing the sand of nests, or crushing freshly-laid eggs.

Artificial lighting which disorients hatchlings returning to the sea is a side effect of development. Hatchlings orient themselves by the reflection of the moon on the water. Artificial lighting can lure them farther from the shoreline. And bright beaches often deter pregnant females from coming ashore to dig nests. In some European resort areas the lights and loud music of late night revelry by tourists often cause females to void their eggs in the sea, where they can’t survive.

Beach armoring such as seawalls, jetties, and other structures built to combat sand erosion also disorients or turns the turtles away.

Well-intentioned beach cleaning during which eggs can be crushed or exposed is a danger in residential and resort areas, and beach nourishment, or adding sand, often destroys nests or disrupts nesting activity.

And in some areas of the Eastern US, homeowners are waging legal battles to be permitted to drive on the sands of turtle nesting beaches. There’s an absolute disaster in the making.

Fishermen and shrimpers, in spite of regulations requiring Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) drown or maim many of the turtles trapped in their nets. There are efforts in the US Congress to overturn the law requiring TEDs which, if successful will be a shameful and disastrous blow to the efforts of turtle conservationists worldwide. Although defeated in the past, the lobbyists for this exclusion persist in their efforts.

Poachers who use certain species for craft manufacturing, perfume, leather making, and oil pose a problem. You cannot legally carry out of Mexico anything made from a sea turtle, nor take it into the US legally.

This is a worldwide problem. In certain areas of Southeast Asia stuffed sea turtles of all ages are sold in souvenir shops, along with turtle oil, and dried reproductive organs, offered as aphrodisiacs.

Subsistence hunters who eat certain parts and discard the rest are a small but deadly threat to survival of sea turtles. Only a small portion of the meat is taken in what might be one of the most ecologically harmful meals ever.

Indiscriminate dumping of waste into the seas causes the death of many sea turtles that die of intestinal blockages after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for jellyfish. Examinations of 33 dead Leatherbacks washed ashore between 1979 and 1988 showed they had ingested plastic bags, monofilament line, or plastic sheeting. Balloons, as well as plastic of all kinds, and styrofoam are also potential turtle killers.

Entanglement in long lines of deep-water commercial fishermen’s nets, buoy anchor lines, and other cables drowns a large number of turtles each year. Marine scientists have surmised that these factors have led to a significant decline in the extremely endangered Leatherback population.

Some also die or are injured from taking bait from deep sea fishing lines.

Steve Beverly, an American living in New Caledonia, recently earned a $25,000 prize from The World Wildlife Fund for developing a commercial fishing technique that reduces the risk of harming turtles. His development is to weight fishing lines so they take the hooks more than 325 feet deep so that won’t attract the attention of the sea turtles who inhabit shallower coastal waters. Simple, but effective.

Beach obstructions caused by leaving beach furniture, umbrellas, coolers, and such in the paths taken by nesting turtles interfere with their ability to find safe nesting spots.

And oil and gas exploration efforts disrupt feeding grounds, injure or kill turtles, alter habitat, and pollute the turtles' environment.

The next greatest threat to the survival of sea turtles, rapidly moving into first position, is the spread of fibropapilloma tumors. These are lobe-shaped tumors that grow on all soft parts of the turtle's body, including internal organs. They often increase in number and size until the turtle dies.

These tumors were first reported back in the 1930s but in the early '80s the reports increased to epidemic proportions. While initially restricted to the green turtles the disease is now spreading to other sea turtle species and may soon surpass man as the number one threat to the survival of all species of sea turtles.

Marine biologists in many programs are working desperately to find the cure for this devastating disease and they all need more research money. Find a program and donate if you can.

Predators in the wild, threat number three, are also responsible for many turtle deaths and the destruction of large numbers of nests each year.

Many land mammals such as the mongoose, raccoon, rat, fox, and coyote or wolf are aware of the nesting cycles and exploit that knowledge to their benefit. Surprisingly, crabs are also a significant threat and sea birds and sharks are effective harvesters.

And pets allowed to run loose on the beaches are just as deadly as the wild predators.

In all these cases the threat to survival is amplified by the fact that nesting turtles are victims of instinct, or habit, or a homing impulse that returns them to the same nesting grounds year after year. Hunting these creatures, or discovering their nests is a fairly simple task for all; man or beast or bird.

One indication that traditional nesting grounds of some species are being destroyed is that of the eight species of sea turtles, six have been sighted by fishermen in the Jalisco-Colima-Nayarit area. This is a relatively unusual happening. Many of these marine beings are searching for new nesting beaches after their traditional sanctuaries were destroyed.

You can’t build new beaches but you can support those who fight each day to slow the tsunami of species destruction. We’re all diminished by the loss of our natural assets but we can each play a part in ensuring the future of those who have survived for millions of years.

To join in the important work at El Tortugario please contact Dr. Marycruz Rivera at tortugacuyutlan@hotmail.com.mx to volunteer or to offer a donation in support of the conservation labors of the employees and volunteers of El Tortugario.

Teachers and others interested in this effort are invited to contact me at dondelmundo@yahoo.com to discuss activities suitable for teaching environmental awareness to your students or friends while helping save the sea turtles.

And let your congressional representative know that you oppose any legislation that eases restrictions on the use of TEDs, or encroachment onto traditional nesting beaches. You can also encourage them to appropriate funds to develop a cure for fibropapilloma tumors.

You can make a positive difference.