Cancun, Q.R. — According to Protección y Conservación de las Tortugas Marinas, more than 4,100 turtle nests have been recorded this season along Cancun beaches.
The organization says that a total of 4,147 nests with 493,412 eggs remain under protection. They also say that already this year, 3,730 offspring were released into the sea. Guadalupe Alcántara Mas, head of the municipal Ecology office, said that every day, staff that supervise the coasts of Benito Juárez rescue and properly transfer newly laid eggs to the protection corral.
She says the relocation is done to protect the eggs from the thousands of beachgoers as well as machinery used to clean the sand.
“We take care of the females, the nests and the young of the four species that are represented in Quintana Roo. Cancun is the second largest sea turtle nesting area in the state, after Riviera Maya,” she added.
She said that each nest inside the pen is dated and covered with sand in such a way that it looks like a mound. If the mound begins to sink, this means that the eggs hatched, so the baby turtles are released, which, she adds, they do at night.
Turtle season for Cancun normally runs May to October.
