Cozumel, Q.R. — Cozumel City Hall has announced the starting date for the island’s 2023 sea turtle season. According to Ayuntamiento de Cozumel, “it will be May 17 when the start of the activities for the Sea Turtle Protection Program of the “San Martín 2023 Season” Turtle Camp begins.”
On May 17, groups will begin the first stage of monitoring on the beaches of the eastern coast of the island, which is where the greatest number of sea turtles arrive. During this first stage, volunteers will mark any nests found.
Later in other stages, volunteers will help to clean beach areas as well as with the eventual release of the hatchling, explained the Deputy Director of Ecology, Germán Yáñez Mendoza.
Currently, the beaches of Cozumel record an average of 2,000 nests per season, and around 150,000 hatchlings are released when weather conditions allow it. So every year, institutions, companies and volunteers coordinate to work from May to December in the protection and conservation of this endangered marine species.
Yáñez Mendoza said that last year, the San Martine Turtle Camp recorded a total of 4,100 nests on 20 kilometers of beaches. Of those, a total of 134,198 hatchlings were released with the help of 1,215 island volunteers.
