Sea turtle nesting in Campeche on the rise

Mèrida, Yucatàn, (May 11, 2021).- Just one month after the start of the sea turtle nesting season on the shores of Campeche, 86 nests have already been reported in the 15 turtle camps that are located on more than 500 kilometers of coastline.

This number is an indication that this season could exceed last year, where 4,151 nests were protected.

“The count we have is 86 nests, the camp that registers the highest number of nests is the Punta Xen camp with 54 nests, from there it is followed by the Sabancuy camp which has 30, the Xencan camp with 11 and the remaining that walk around two, three nests, all these 86 nests are of the hawksbill species ”, explained Jorge Berzunza Chío, representative director of Wildlife of the Secretariat of Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Change of Campeche.

For specialists, these numbers indicate stability in the nesting of the turtles and recovery of the hawksbill species population in its natural environment.

“The numbers are favorable, we hope this population growth will continue, in 2020 with the results we had what we can see is that there is stability especially in the populations of the females that visit us, that is the indicator that shows us that the populations are in full growth, the hawksbill turtle remains ”, highlighted Berzunza Chío.

The turtles that come to spawn on some of the Campeche beaches are marked to keep a record and this has made it possible to verify that the species is recovering.

“Since last year we have had about a 30 percent recovery of the Hawksbill turtle. Last year we tagged 208 hawksbill turtles and this year we are ready to continue doing the same tagging procedure and to be able to keep a much better statistic now for the benefit of the program, ” said Javier Cosgaya Delgado, president of Grupo Ecologista Quelonios.

During the 2020 season, 294,660 hawksbill hatchlings were released, a figure that is expected to be exceeded this year.

Source: Punto medio