TURTLE NESTING SEASON BEGINS IN THE RIVIERA MAYA

Quintana Roo, México.- The white sand that covers the beaches for Mexicans and foreigners, is the home for four of the eight species of turtles existing in the world, it is here where the green, loggerhead, hawksbill and leatherback turtles come to nest; it is expected that this season there will be about 450 nests in the Costa Maya.

With a peaceful and dedicated look, turtles arrive to the beaches of the Caribbean Sea, after a journey of days or even weeks; it is said that some will make this trip only once in their lifetime, while others may do it more than 10 times, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy of Florida.

Every year during the period from May to October these travelers are expected to arrive to the coasts of the Riviera Maya, but on this occasion they arrived early; it was on April 18th when the first nesting was registered on the coast of Mahahual, and at the beginning of May in Puerto Morelos, where they received two of the first species, Chelona Mydas (better known as the green turtle) and the Caretta (better known as loggerhead). 

Their arrival is a real achievement because it is also from these places where they start their lives. At a speed of 1.5 and up to 3 kilometers per hour, these reptiles manage to travel 20 to 40 kilometers per day and up to 80 in high current areas.

Preparation prior to their arrival

The commitment of civil associations coordinated with the academy and some institutions that carry out study and registration work, address from the beginning one of the most frequent problems, the conservation, so now they join efforts to maintain the beaches in good condition, clean and monitor them, to be ready whenever the turtles arrive.

According to Miriam Tzeek, coordinator of information, training and research, the monitoring record will be very useful:

“The conservation program has installed turtle camps on the 13 beaches with the highest nesting density in Mexico, along 35.4 kilometers of Quintana Roo’s coastline. The most relevant characteristic of these nesting sites is the high concentration of nests per square meter, with a maximum of four to six nests found in just one square meter of beach”.

It is usually at night when the females arrive on the beaches, laying between 80 and 180 eggs, depending on the species. Mortality is estimated to be high, as only one out of 1000 turtles that arrive will survive, and they will spend most of their lives (80 to 100 years) in shallow waters.

Problems faced

The survival of the turtles depends mainly on the handling of 4 different factors: garbage on the beaches, sargassum and predators, being the human the most important of them:

•  and direct extraction (illegal practice in almost all countries), particularly when related to international trafficking of products and by-products.

• Bycatch and incidental mortality in fisheries.
• Prolonged and persistent removal of eggs and females from nesting beaches.
• Destruction, contamination or degradation of feeding sites.
• Transformation or destruction of nesting beaches by coastal development (artificial lighting).

The turtle’s body is usually appealing, either for its meat (some trade and use it as food) or for its skin and shell (used in clothing, jewelry making and apparel).

In our country all species of turtles are in danger of extinction, and are protected under the environmental protection standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, which establishes a strategy for their care, and whoever does not adhere to it is subject to a penalty of 1 to 9 years in prison and the equivalent of three hundred to three thousand days fine.

If you are fortunate enough to see a baby turtle, follow the recommendations below to help keep the balance of this species:

• Do not approach them.
• Notify the person in charge of the nearest turtle farm or the environmental authority in the area.
• Make sure you do not step on their nests.
• Do not touch or eat their eggs.
• Do not leave garbage on the beach.