Cancun, Mexico — Annoyed by the lack of preparation for hurricanes in the past, the Mexican government on Wednesday began even evacuating sea turtle eggs from beaches before the hurricanes arrived. Hurricane Beryl.
While Beryl remains offshore in the Caribbean near Jamaica, it is expected to arrive somewhere south of Cancun late Thursday or early Friday.
Since Mexico did little to warn or evacuate residents of the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco during Hurricane Otis in OctoberThis time officials are being extremely cautious, digging up recently laid sea turtle eggs for fear they could be swept away by storm surge.
Government employees kept hawksbill sea turtle eggs covered with sand in dozens of coolers while they moved them to safer locations.
In other areas, they used sandbag barriers to create safe “corrals” to protect the turtle nests against the expected strong waves.
Biologist Graciela Tiburcio, one of Mexico’s leading sea turtle experts, said this was an extreme measure that could cause excessive failures in the hatching of turtle eggs.
“Look, it’s not the best thing to do, but we are facing an emergency in which if they don’t get them out, everyone could be lost,” said Tiburcio, who did not participate in the effort.
Several species of sea turtles come ashore in and around Cancun to lay their eggs in the sand, where the hatchlings will emerge a few weeks later and crawl out to sea. Typically, people are told not to disturb the nests, because the sand keeps them at the ideal temperature for hatching.
In addition, it is believed that sea turtles use the natural light on beaches to orient themselves and, in many cases, return to the same place once they are adults.
But Beryl’s waves and storm surge could simply sweep them out to sea, where they would not be able to hatch.
“In a normal situation this would not be good, because it will surely cause mortality,” said Tiburcio. “There will be a lower rate of hatched eggs, that is the reality. “But it is also a reality that if the nests are left there, they will all be lost.”
Cancun’s municipal environment department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on where the turtle eggs were being taken for safekeeping. But in a social media post, the office said it had unearthed more than 10,000 eggs from around 93 nests.
Hawksbill turtles, like all sea turtles, They are protected species in Mexico and it is prohibited to extract their eggs, which were once widely consumed.
It’s not just about turtles: further south, on the Caribbean coast, in the fishing town of Punta Allen, soldiers, police and sailors strongly pressured its 700 inhabitants to completely evacuate their homes.
Punta Allen is located on a narrow spit of land south of the tourist center of Tulum.
A Punta Allen resident who asked to remain anonymous said many residents, about half the population, were resisting calls to evacuate.
“They are asking everyone to leave Punta Allen… but people don’t want to leave,” he said. “They have no money and they don’t want to leave their possessions.”
Additionally, the woman said, the government offers free transportation to leave, but does not offer transportation back to people once the hurricane has passed.
Many in Mexico have long distrusted the government’s disaster preparedness efforts, because officials often fail to enforce zoning and safety rules, and do little before storms.
Acapulco is still struggling to recover after being hit by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October. Otis left at least 52 dead and destroyed or damaged most hotels.
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