WWF-TELMEX/TELCEL Foundation Partnership releases 420 olive ridley sea turtles in Acapulco
The WWF-TELMEX/TELCEL Foundation Partnership released more than 400 olive ridley sea turtles on the beaches of Acapulco, Guerrero, as part of the actions to raise awareness among Mexicans about the importance of conserving marine species.
During this first release, the 250 assistants included four students from High School Number 4 of Tapachula, Chiapas. The event included a talk given by Georgina Saad, Coordinator of the Priority Marine Species Program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who highlighted the importance of preserving this turtle, since only one in a thousand reaches adult life.
Marcos Linares, Deputy Director of Crossmedia & Content of TELCEL informed that the Partnership also supports turtle camps in the Sea of Cortez, where in the last decade 100,000 hatchlings have been released each year, totaling up to one million olive ridleys that begin their way to the sea.
The marine ecologist Víctor Verdejo, who runs the Turtle Campsite – Playa Larga Environmental Management, in Acapulco, reported that thanks to the Partnership’s support, 280,770 olive ridley and 671 leatherback sea turtles have been released on that coast in the last four years.
The participating students were transferred from Tapachula, in recognition of their work in the environmental education program La naturaleza en tu escuela (The nature in your school), which celebrates five years of education on Mexican biodiversity to high school students and invites students to create works of art inspired in the subject.
Their sculpture, “Chiapaz for the family of Doña Golfina “, was exhibited during February at the Soumaya Museum, along with another 83 plastic pieces by students from 21 states of the country.
The WWF-Carlos Slim Foundation Partnership works in six priority regions (Mexican Mesoamerican Reef, Chihuahuan Desert, Gulf of California, Monarch Butterfly, Oaxaca and Chiapas) with local, national and international partners, who add efforts and financial and human resources in sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity. It also works hand in hand with federal and state government agencies so that investments contribute to meeting national and regional goals.