We are excited to share the news of our first nesting turtle at The Royal Sands on May 24.

The loggerhead turtle or caguama laid 92 eggs, which the security team then moved to the turtle nest enclosure to protect them from predators, the waves and the passage of human feet. We hope that this arrival will be the first of many over the coming months.

If you are staying with us over the summer, please help us protect our oceangoing visitors by following turtle season rules:

• Alert the security staff when you see a turtle on the beach at night
• Be very quiet and keep still, noise, lights and the movement of people disturb nesting sea turtles and cause them to leave the beach without laying eggs
• Watch from a distance of 10 meters (33 feet)
• Do not attempt to touch the turtle or crowd her
• Do not shine a torch or use the light on your mobile phone
• No flash photography
• No smoking
• Obey security staff when they give instructions
• Help us to keep our beaches and sea clean. Plastic straws, bags, packaging, fishing lines and nets and other garbage floating in the water are lethal to turtles and other marine life
• When snorkeling or diving watch turtles from a distance, do not swim towards them and do not attempt to touch them
• Wear a t-shirt when snorkeling as protection from the sun instead of applying sun block. Sun products pollute the water and are harmful to marine life
• Turtles are protected by Mexican law, and it is illegal to disturb them, persecute or hunt them and consume their meat or eggs.

Turtle fast facts

• Four species of sea turtle nest on Mexican Caribbean beaches: the green turtle, loggerhead, hawksbill and the leatherback, the world’s largest turtle is a rare visitor.
• Both sea and freshwater turtles were sacred creatures for the ancient Maya, associated with water and the rain god Chaac. The turtle shell represented the earth and altars were often carved in the form of turtles.
• The Maya name for turtle is Ak and Akumal in the Riviera Maya, where they are often seen, means “place of the turtles.”
• Female turtles return to the same beach where they were born to lay their eggs.
• The temperature of the sand is thought to determine the sex of unborn turtles, the higher the temperature, fewer males are born.