Turtle season begins in May

We are ready for the 2018 turtle nesting season at Royal Resorts. From May to September, female green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles will come ashore at night to lay their eggs on the beaches of the Mexican Caribbean.

Sightings of the first turtles of the season have already been reported in Akumal, Xcacel and Puerto Morelos, including one that dug its nest on the beach in front of Grand Residences. Thousands more will follow them this summer.

The security teams at The Royal Sands, The Royal Caribbean, The Royal Islander, Grand Residences and The Royal Haciendas are the Royal Resorts turtle guardians. Before the season starts they attend a refresher course on nesting season rules and procedures given by local biologists and then they are ready to start their nightly turtle patrols.

When they find a nesting turtle, they watch over her as she digs her nest in the sand and lays her eggs. They then collect the eggs and move them to a nursery further up the beach where they will be protected from the waves, predators and the passage of human feet. They dig another nest identical in shape and depth to the original and bury the eggs. The species, date and time of nesting and number of eggs are recorded and the long wait begins until they hatch 45 to 60 days later.

The guards release the baby turtles after dark when predatory seabirds such as gulls and frigate birds have gone to roost.

Follow the turtle season rules

If you are going to stay at Royal Resorts or Grand Residences this summer, please join us in protecting our turtle visitors. Follow the turtle 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 ten (33 feet) meters
• 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.

The Mexican environmental agency SEMARNAT rules for turtle nesting season are designed to keep human contact with the creatures to a minimum. The rules stipulate that fragile baby turtles can only be released by trained personnel and not by hotel guests. Failure to comply with these measures can lead to resorts losing the right to have turtle nurseries on site or to be part of the turtle protection campaign.

A Cancun conservation pioneer, Royal Resorts has been watching over sea turtles since 1985. Official record keeping began in 1998 and since then we have protected 7,995 nests and released 741,042 baby turtles!

The 2017 turtle season broke records all over the Mexican Caribbean and at Royal Resorts. The tally of nests at The Royal Sands, The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Islander was 1,063 nests and 111,226 baby turtles were released. There were 228 nests and 20,000 hatchlings at Grand Residences Riviera Cancun and five nests at The Royal Haciendas.

Sea turtle nesting is cyclical and good years with lots of turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs are invariably followed by slow years. Last year was a record-breaking year. We hope that 2018 will also be a good year for the sea turtles.