IAs Biologist Jose Barron of Mazatlan’s Aquarium can tell you, Sinaloa State´s beaches between the tip of the Baja Peninsula and South to the State of Jalisco, is the world’s major nesting area for the endangered Olive Ridley Sea Turtle. The Olive Ridley is one of eight species of sea turtle that has survived, relatively unchanged, for 150 million years, since the time of the great dinosaurs. Seven of the eight existing sea turtle species make their nests on Mexico’s beaches. All sea turtles are endangered, and the Kemp’s Ridley Turtle that nests on islands and Mexican and Texan beaches in the Gulf of Mexico is on the verge of extinction. A recent estimate is that the the population of Kemp’s Ridley has declined from 400,000 in 1960, to a present figure of 1000 individuals. Similarly, identified nests counted for the giant Leatherback turtle was 50 nests in 1993, down from 6,500 nests in 1986. The Leatherback is the largest of these “living fossils.” Adults average 6½ feet in length across the carapace, and weigh up to 1600 pounds. Depradation by man is the chief reason sea turtles are threatened with extinction. Tens of thousands of sea turtles are drowned each year in shrimp trawl nets, a particularly inefficient and wasteful enterprise, in which up to 80% of the “catch” of fish, crabs, clams, and other marine invertebrates are non-targeted species and discarded as trash. Drift nets take a toll, as well as the long line fisheries, in which thousands of hooks stretch out as far as 75 miles. The sea turtles are attracted to the eerie green glow of underwater chemical lights, only to suffocate when they become impaled on the hooks. In the mid-1960´s hey-day of turtle exploitation, prior to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 100 Pangas engaged in Mazatlán’s turtle fishery, and it was not uncommon for a single 23 foot open skiff Panga, with a crew of three, to harvest 100 turtles in a single day. Powered by powerful outboard motors, it wasn’t even necessary to stop the Panga. A gaff-hook tied to a rope was commonly used to snag turtles sleeping or resting on the surface. Their carapace shells dried by the sun made it difficult for the turtles to submerge. Popular enduring folklore has attached aphrodisiacal qualities to turtle oil, blood, and especially turtle eggs. Each morning, prior to protective legislation, housewives throu-ghout Mexico, from Tijuana to Veracruz, lined up outside markets to buy turtle products. Turtle skin was used for leather, turtle shell for