The Mexican government, painfully aware of past failures in hurricane preparedness, began evacuating even sea turtle eggs from the coast on Wednesday ahead of the approach of Hurricane Beryl.
Beryl is still far off the coast of Jamaica in the Caribbean but is expected to make landfall somewhere south of Cancun by late Thursday or early Friday.
Mexico gave little warning or evacuations to residents of the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco during Hurricane Otis in October, so authorities are being extra cautious this time, digging up newly laid sea turtle eggs for fear they will be swept away by high tides.
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Government workers had placed the river turtle eggs in dozens of coolers, covered them with sand and transported them to a safer location.
In other areas, sandbag barriers have been used to create safety “enclosures” to protect turtle nests from expected strong waves.
Biologist Graciela Tiburcio, one of Mexico’s leading sea turtle experts, said it was an extreme measure and could lead to an increase in failure of sea turtle eggs to hatch.
“Look, this is not the best solution, but we have an emergency situation and if they don’t remove them, they could all be lost,” said Tiburcio, who is not involved in the effort.
In and around Cancun, several species of sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on the beaches, and after a few weeks the hatched turtles dive into the sea. Normally, the beaches are kept at the perfect temperature for the turtles to hatch, so it is said that the nests should not be disturbed.
It is also believed that sea turtles rely on natural lighting on the coast to orient themselves, and often return to the same locations as adults.
State workers evacuate turtle eggs from a beach to protect them from the approaching Hurricane Beryl, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Cancun, Mexico. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
However, Beryl’s waves and high tides wash them out to sea, where they are unable to hatch.
“Under normal circumstances, this is not true because it would definitely result in mortality,” Tiburcio said. “You’d have a lower hatch rate for the eggs, that’s the reality. But it’s also the reality that if you leave the nest alone, you’re going to lose everything.”
Cancun’s environment department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on where the eggs had been taken for storage, but said in a social media post that more than 10,000 eggs had been excavated from about 93 nests.
Like other sea turtles, the Caligula turtle is a protected species in Mexico, and harvesting of its eggs, once widely eaten, is prohibited.
It’s not just the turtles: Further south on the Caribbean coast, in the fishing village of Punta Allen, soldiers, police and marines were pressuring the 700 residents to evacuate their homes entirely.
Punta Allen sits on a narrow sandbar south of the resort of Tulum.
One Punta Allen resident, who asked not to be named, said many residents – about half the population – were resisting calls to evacuate.
“They’re asking everyone to leave Punta Allen, but people don’t want to leave,” she said. “They don’t have the money and they don’t want to leave their possessions.”
The woman also said that while the government is providing free transportation during evacuations, it is not providing transportation home after the hurricane has passed.
In Mexico, many people have long distrusted government disaster preparedness, with authorities often failing to enforce zoning and safety rules and doing little before storms.
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Acapulco is still struggling to recover after being hit by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October, which killed at least 52 people and destroyed or damaged most of the city’s hotels.
