We are all looking for snippets of good news at the moment and here’s one Royal Resorts story that will bring a smile to your face. The latest 2020 turtle news is that the first baby turtles of the season have been born at The Royal Sands, The Royal Islander and Royal Uno and have been released to begin their new life at sea.
In the past few days, 7,978 eggs have hatched in the turtle nurseries at the three resorts, including several loggerhead and hawksbill turtle nests. The Royal Resorts turtle guardians, our security staff, are monitoring the nests round the clock, on the look out for movements in the sand, the first tiny head or flipper of a hatchling struggling free of the egg.
It appears that the sea turtles are venturing up on to Cancun’s beaches in greater numbers this season, perhaps due to fewer boats during the day and fewer lights, sounds and people on the shoreline after dark. At Royal Resorts we are protecting 492 nests with 58,335 precious eggs (August 8), with many more weeks to go in the 2020 season.
A Cancun turtle conservation pioneer, Royal Resorts began watching over our ocean-going summer visitors in 1985. Since 1998, Royal Resorts has protected 9,505 nests and released 867,667 hatchlings.
In more 2020 turtle news, in Cancun, more than 3,137 turtle nests and more than 370,874 eggs had already been reported along the shoreline from Punta Cancun to Punta Nizuc by early July. There are 47 corrals, 45 in hotels and resorts and 2 installed by the Ecology Department. Green turtles account for the majority of the nests but there have also been more loggerhead and hawksbill nests than usual and six leatherback turtle nests with 556 eggs, an extremely rare occurrence.
Isla Mujeres is reporting 623 nests and 69,918 green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtle eggs to date.
Further south in the Riviera Maya, the Akumal Ecology Center (CEA) is reporting that there are 742 green and loggerhead turtle nests on the four beaches that its volunteers patrol and that 1,466 baby turtles have already hatched. Akumal means “the place of the turtles” in Maya and is one of the most important nesting areas in the Mexican Caribbean.
Flora, Fauna and Cultura biologists and volunteers watch over a number of beaches in the Riviera Maya and Sian Ka’an, including the beaches of Xcacel and Xcacelito, the turtle sanctuary. They have already recorded 6,213 green turtle nests with 2,582 hatchlings released and 1,990 loggerhead turtle nests with 7,890 hatchlings to date.
Stay posted for more 2020 turtle season updates on the Royal Resorts blog.
Source: Cancun Ecology Department turtle report, July 7, 2020. Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA) for Akumal turtle statistics, July 28. Comite Estatal de la Protección de la Tortuga Marina
