Sea turtles live in all oceans of tropical and temperate waters, particularly favoring calm and shallow waters, even though you can find them in open seas. they usually live a lonely and peaceful life but you can also sometimes find them in groups as large as one thousand specimens.

There are seven species of sea turtles around the world, with one sub-species sometimes considered as eighth. Four out of the seven different species (including the sub-species) visit Mexican coasts, two of them are rarely seen nesting anywhere else than in Mexico: Prieta (sub-species of the Green turtle, for this one is black) and Lara.

Even tough they are slow and clumsy on land, they are extremely good swimmers and can reach speeds up to 35km/h.

Each year the females return to the beach where they were born to dig their nests and lay around 50 to 200 eggs. Turtles lay their eggs at night so they can hide from predators. The nesting period of the baby turtle lasts between 45 to 65 days, until the eggs hatch and the baby turtles crawl down the beach to the sea.

The nesting season normally dates from May until October, with crescent numbers during new moon nights.

If you happen to see a nesting turtle, please do not disturb it nor use any flash lights (not even camera flashes). You can sit at about 2 meters away and quietly watch, but please do not touch the animal, it might agitate the painful and long (around 2 hours) process they are going through.

When exercising on the beach, playing or jogging, you might be lucky enough to see baby turtles in their race to the sea.

Again, please do not interfere; it´s better to let them take their natural course to the sea by letting them do it themselves, it will help preserve their instinct of coming back to that same beach when ready to nest themselves.

Two organizations survey and look after the reserve turtles: “Amigos de Sian Ka´an” and “Flora, Fauna & Cultura”. They point out detected nests by placing a wooden stick describing scientific data such as: nesting date, species and tracking numbers. Encountering a sign like this(sometimes there are many packed together) means the nest is right in front of the stick, between it and the ocean. Please avoid walking on top of that precise area! Baby turtles´ eggs are very delicate…

We ask you to mark the location of a non-monitored nest with a stick and inform your concierge, so we alert the organizations and they can add the new nest in their observation surveys. This way you can take action and be part of an incredible conservation process!

Interested and you want to know more?

We suggest: Sea Turtle World as a reliable source of information.