Mexico ecological park to set record for turtle hatchings

From the Marine Turtle Newsletter:

Xcaret, Mexico’s biggest private ecological park, will set a record this year by releasing 2,000 baby turtles that hatched in the park as part of a successful program of breeding program.

Located south of Cancun on the Mexican Caribbean, Xcaret began in 1993 its so-called Initiation Program, which consists of maintaining for 15 months two nesting sites for turtles in captivity, who are then released into the sea after receiving special care and feeding by a team of veterinarians.

Xcaret Park regularly sets free turtles that are 30 centimeters (1 foot) long and therefore have a greater chance of surviving the predators lying in wait for them. The turtles are released with tourists looking on.

“One of the program’s main goals is to raise people’s awareness about the plight of marine turtles in Mexico,” said Ana Cecilia Negrete, coordinator of operations and preventive medicine for marine turtles in Xcaret.

The principal dangers to Mexico’s turtles include the invasion of beaches by people, sport fishing, the depredation of their nests by some communities that still eat their flesh and eggs, and injuries to some of them by outboard motors on boats.

Xcarethas also undertaken since 2003 the treatment and cure of those found injured or stranded. Veterinarians at the park have achieved a recovery rate of 98.4 percent for the turtles they receive.

In addition, Xcaret protects Xcacel Beach to the south of the Maya Riviera, the main nesting ground for the country’s green sea turtles. At that location, from May to October up to 6,000 turtle nests can be found, of which Xcaret takes two for its installations. Source:

The article originally appeared in the Latin American Herald Tribune, 4 April 2009.