MTN 42:3-4 Turtle Nesting in Quintana Roo, Mexico

seaturtle.org : MTN : ARCHIVES : Sign In

Turtle Nesting in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Reyna Gil H.¹, Pedro Viveros Leon¹ and Jack B. Woody²
¹PEDRO VIVEROS LEON, CIQRO, Cancun, Mexico
²FWS, Albuqureque, New Mexico

The "Centro de Investigaciones de Quintana Roo", in cooperation with the Directora General de Consrevacion Ecologica de los Recursos Naturales, SEDUE, Mexico, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.A., instituted field work in 1987 along the Mexican Caribbean coast of the State of Quintana Roo to ascertain the current status of sea turtles which nest along this coastal area of Mexico.

By the end of August, ten beaches were being monitored over a 150 km length of coast line, including the Biosphere Reserve area of Sian Ka'an. Approximately 23 beach workers, biologists, students, and technicians are assigned to specific beaches to carry out the field work. As of the end of August, they have tagged 302 Caretta caretta, 70 Chelonia mydas, 1 Dermochelys coriacea, 1 Eretmochelys imbricata, and protected 722 Caretta and 155 Chelonia nests by either moving nests to guarded corrals or leaving nests in-situ when protection can be assured. This amounts to approximately 83,874 Caretta eggs and 18,575 Chelonia eggs. Although prohibited by Federal law the poaching of turtle eggs is widespread, and without active field conservation efforts egg loss would be quite high.

The field work did not get underway as early as we had hoped, so the above information is not a true reflection of total nesting to date on the ten project beaches.

The objectives of this program are to determine nesting species composition and numbers, identify major and minor nesting beaches, and to establish an on-going management and research effort related to turtle populations of the Mexican Caribbean.