The turtle egg-laying season is between May and September in the Mexican Caribbean resort town of Cancun. I was fortunate to visit with my son in August and experience turtle eggs hatching and the baby turtle’s journey to the ocean.
For most sea turtles, making their way onto the beach at night to lay eggs can be a risky situation. In Cancun, a few of the hotels located on the famed ‘Hotel Zone’ have created sea turtle protection and release programs. I recently visited CasaMagna Marriott Cancún Resort, where in conjunction with their adjacent property, the JW Marriott have implemented a sea turtle protection and release program that protects and preserves this endangered species. CasaMagna and JW Marriott Cancun Resorts save an average of 3,000 endangered baby turtles each year.
When the female turtles make their way onto the beach to lay their eggs, they are guarded from a distance by a marine biologist or hotel employees to make sure they are not disturbed. The females, then head back to the Caribbean waters, leaving their eggs to incubate. Once the female turtle heads back to sea, the marine biologist or hotel employees will relocate the eggs to a protected area to ensure that nesting sea turtles go undisturbed.
Once the eggs have been moved and buried in the sand, the mound is marked with a sign designating the date, the species of turtle – Blanca (Green), Carey (Hawksbill), Caguama (Loggerhead) – and the number of eggs. Average hatching takes 60 days, but can be faster depending on the temperature of the sand.
My first morning at CasaMagna, I headed to the beach for the sunrise with my son and we ran into two other hotel guests who showed us the turtle tracks in the sand and the protected area the turtle eggs are kept in on the beach at CasaMagna. As we were standing there two employees came over and began checking the different mounds to see if any of the turtles had hatched.
We watched them gently dig in the sand until they came upon a group of baby turtles that had hatched. They took them one by one and placed them in a large bucket. The babies are in danger from birds, during day light hours, so they keep them secure and safe until a release in the evening.
On top seeing the babies that morning, it turned out they were doing a turtle release that evening and it was open to hotel guests. While they let turtles go most evenings during this time of year, they only allow guests of the hotel to take part in a release every seven to 10 days. At dusk that evening we gathered on the beach with about 20 other hotel guests and patiently waited for the birds to ‘give up waiting’. The hotel won’t release the turtles if there are any birds in eyesight. While we waited two hotel employees shared information about the turtles and answered questions and had a photo opportunity with a few of the babies.
When the birds finally gave up – we headed to the shoreline and they released about 300 turtles into the sea. It was a really beautiful moment watching these tiny turtles instinctively know to head out into the water to start their life in the sea.
If you travel to Cancun – support the CasaMagna and JW Marriott Cancun Resorts and this amazing program they have implemented! And make sure to spread the word about this great cause.
Very good article and information, Alexa. We love Cancun, the locals, cuisine and the local beer too along with the warm water and ancient ruins. We’ve stayed at the CasnaMagna Marriott twice just before Christmas. Cancun isn’t the same anymore since we were there in 1985 and 1990. Too many tourists along with high rise condos and hotels in the hotel zone.
Michael and Gina
NYC
Great article, glad you and your son got see this awesome event.
We were staying in a timeshare, but we were invited to help dig up the turtles in relocated nests and put them in the plastic crates, we collected turtles from each nest . We had eight nests to dig up and ended up with approximately 700 turtles. That night, It was dark when we lined up just like you said , Walked by the 8 crates picked up a turtle be released in the ocean, then run back to the end of the line to get another. They had so many turtles it took us an hour to release them all.
I was blessed to be able to participate in both aspects of the wonderful experience. Helped with the release of the turtles one evening and helped with digging of others out of the sand the following morning.
A heart warming experience to be able to be a small part of such an important program
In September my family and I, from Montreal, were able to join in releasing baby turtles every
evening in Cancun. One morning I was also able to reach in a sand hole and take out about 50
hatchlings. After sunset we all helped in releasing the babies who scampered in the surf. For a
great read find “Voyage of the Turtle….in pursuit of the Earth’s last dinosaur.” By Carl Safina.
Henry Holt Publisher, NYC.