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The Marco Island Marriott is offering a prize hotel stay to guests. The only catch, a baby must be conceived during the stay.

The Fertile Turtle package and an accompanying message to guests reminding them of sea turtle mating season are not only catchy marketing tools, they’re practically required by law.

The Fertile Turtle package is a return promotion from last year. Couples who conceive during a stay of at least two nights may win a complimentary three-night stay for a return visit. Parents need to provide a birth certificate and proof of recent hotel stay, within eight to 10 months of the baby’s birth.

The package includes a room with a private balcony overlooking the habitat of mating sea turtles, fertility enhancing aromatherapy massages, conception enhancing tea and a commemorative photo album.

The promotion is only available at the Marco Island Marriott during sea turtle mating season, May 1 through Oct. 31, for room stays ranging from $419 to $689 per night. Parents need to provide a birth certificate and proof of recent hotel stay, within eight to 10 months of the baby’s birth.

Ten percent of the proceeds benefit the Sea Turtle Monitoring and Protection Project of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

The resort currently has a nest of the endangered turtles on their beach, said Bob Pfeffer, the resort’s director of marketing.

“Lovebirds have the opportunity to watch sea turtles’ eggs hatch right on the resort’s very own three-mile stretch of beach, while trying to fertilize an egg of their own,” according to the press release.

Pfeffer said no one claimed to have won or conceived during last year’s fertile turtle promotion in order to receive their three-night stay, but said the program was successful enough to carry into this year.

Sea turtle nesting season brings other changes to a stay at the Marco Marriott as well. These are required by law.

“We are progressive in terms of our reverence for nature. It’s part of our culture as a business and on the whole island,” Pfeffer said.

The evidence can be heard in the voice mails left on guests’ hotel room phones. New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey recently wrote an article about the humor of hotels which may “struggle to find the right eco message,” including a recent phone message he received while staying at the Marco Marriott.

Sharkey wrote that he woke in the middle of the night to see the red message light flashing on his hotel room phone.

“Oh, no, I thought. Somebody had needed to reach me urgently, and I hadn’t heard the phone,” Sharkey wrote.

A recorded female voice reminded Sharkey that it is turtle season in Southwest Florida.

The message, which Pfeffer said guests will receive throughout turtle nesting season, goes on to say that baby sea turtles are hatching on the beach and requests that guests assist in the preservation of these hatchlings by closing their blackout curtains by 9 p.m.

“Blackout curtains? Before going to bed around midnight, I had turned off the lights and the air conditioner, and propped open my balcony door with a chair to let in the sea breeze — a good thing, right? Sure, I wanted to save the little baby sea turtles! But it was 3 o’clock in the morning. I didn’t know what to do except go back to sleep,” Sharkey wrote of his experience.

Protecting the environment while offering a top-notch stay in the 727-room hotel is a balancing act.

“The request to close the drapes and turn out the lights helps to keep the turtle hatchlings from getting disoriented,” Pfeffer explained.

Baby sea turtles emerge from their nests, looking to the reflection of the night sky on the Gulf water’s surface to show the turtles the way to the Gulf Stream and ultimately to their food source in the Sargasso Sea.

Bright lights on the beach send the endangered species of turtles the wrong way and make them vulnerable to predators.

City of Marco Island ordinances protect the turtles from obstruction along their path.

Chief Code Compliance Officer Eric Wardle said most of the violations on island are due to lights being left on at night often by short term visitors at island condominiums. There have been 38 violations so far this year, only one which came with a $100 fine, he said.

The Marco Marriott was found violating the light ordinance on a couple occasions last year, but “have been great this year,” Wardle said, adding that Marriott management and staff “did back flips to make sure they were in compliance.”