September 2013

Pez Maya, Mexico

Fresh Start for an Ancient Legacy.

In May this year, GVI started a partnership with

the Mexican civ il association Flora, Fauna and
Cultura of Mexico (FFCM). Since 2002 this
organization has been responsible for the
protection of thirteen sea turtle nesting
beaches in the state of Quintana Roo.
However, due to difficult access to the
beaches San Juan and Yuyum, morning walks
hav e traditionally only been made every
fifteen days to monitor and mark nest
locations. Therefore, one of the main purposes
behind this agreement is to conduct a more
detailed and comprehensiv e monitoring
program and to collect more data on the
species nesting on these beaches - the
Loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta and the
Green turtle Chelonia mydas- to register the
data in special formats and to analyze and
compare this information with the results from
prev ious seasons.

Figure 1 Volunteer cleaning a nest

To date, in partnership with FFCM and Amigos de Sian Kaan we have trained
more than fifty people to perform the regular nocturnal monitoring of the four
and a half kilometer San Juan beach. This has enabled us to obtain
measurements of the turtle, tag details or tag-scars and to locate the nest - if
the nest is thought to be at risk of flooding we relocate it and record the
number of eggs that have been relocated as well as any pertinent details
(deformed eggs, broken eggs etc.). At Yuyum beach, we only prospect for
nests twice a week -during the day- to locate, mark and record the number of
nests.

Today, with all our records, we can proudly

say that so far this year we have protected a
total of 550 nests in San Juan and 61 nests in
Yuyum with a sighting rate of approximately
60% (turtles weve seen making their nest).
Seeing the turtles making their nest gives us
more information about their behav ior,
nesting
preferences
on
the
beach,
measurements of the turtle and other data.
So far this season there have been 3835
Loggerhead hatchlings and 8460 baby Green
turtles that we have helped to make it to the
sea. We are v ery pleased to be able to carry
out this work that is incredibly important for
the conservation of turtles and is making a
direct impact on the health of our Oceans
worldwide.
Figure 2 Baby turtle on its way home

If you would like to know more about this

project, check out http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/sea-turtle-conservation-mexico