Caretta caretta nesting activity on Akumal Beaches, Mexico

Abstract

Mexico has made substantial contributions to marine turtle protection and conservation, especially since 1990. Several conservation projects entail monitoring efforts to recover nesting territories for marine turtles. The Sea Turtle Protection Program of Akumal, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was created in 1993 and was developed by the Akumal Ecological Center. This paper provides the nesting ecology parameters for Caretta caretta over a protection period of 24 years (1995-2018). A well-defined nesting peak was observed in June, with a nesting success rate of 75.2 ± 23.0%. Nesting females showed a mean curved carapace length of 99.0 ± 5.6 cm. The mean clutch size was 108.6 ± 24.6 eggs, with variation among years. The mean incubation period was 57.2 ± 6.2 days. The hatching and emergence success rates were 87.2 ± 16.9% and 78.8 ± 24.4%, respectively. For the 926 tagged females that returned, the remigration interval peaked at 726 days, with a 12-day inter-nesting period. The results show not only the recovery of the nesting population over time but also a decrease in female size; we postulate that this decrease is due to the recruitment of young females, which has been increasingly pronounced since 2010. Hence, the Akumal rookery plays an important role in its corresponding regional management unit (Atlantic Northwest).