Help save 500,000 sea turtle hatchlings in Yucatan

Sea turtle surprises, strong numbers, and a team that won’t give up.

With two and a half months left in the nesting season, we’re excited to share the latest updates with you, our faithful donors.

Let’s start with the exciting news!
This season has been full of surprises. We were thrilled to discover two leatherback nests in El Cuyo! This species doesn’t usually nest in our region, so finding that a mama leatherback had chosen our beach was incredible. From these two nests, about 100 tiny hatchlings made it safely to the ocean. In Holbox, we also had a rare encounter with a loggerhead turtle nesting over the dunes—our team spotted her just as she was returning to the sea. We’re still waiting for hatchling emergence day to see how many little ones joined her journey.

Now for the good news.
Beyond these rare encounters, our teams have been hard at work monitoring hundreds of nests. Since our last report, we’ve documented:

• Celestún: 303 hawksbill and 7 green turtle nests

• El Cuyo: 729 hawksbill and 1,235 green turtle nests

• Holbox: 787 hawksbill and 32 green turtle nests

These numbers are very similar to last year’s, which means we’re holding steady on the path to recovery. Although about 11% of nests have been lost to predation, erosion, or flooding, the hatching and emergence success rates are very encouraging: 93% and 95% in Celestún, 94% and 95% in El Cuyo, and an impressive 96% for both in Holbox.

And now, the challenges we’re turning around.
In our last report, we shared that our ATVs were being repaired and would be ready for the nesting season. Sadly, things didn’t go as planned. The rust damage turned out to be much worse than expected, and while attempting repairs, the frame of one ATV actually broke. We managed to salvage one vehicle, which is now in use at El Cuyo.

On the other beaches, our teams are doing their best without. In Holbox, monitoring the 24 km beach is now done in 4–5 km segments per day, made possible thanks to boat access. In Celestún, we’ve hired a local fisherman to help the team reach the farthest sections at least twice a week, and with support from CONANP, ATV surveys are carried out once a week along the first 12 km.

Having reliable ATVs makes a huge difference for our work, and we’re now facing the need to either purchase new ones or replace the frames of the old vehicles. If you’d like to help us get back on track, a gift toward this need will directly boost our team’s ability to protect more nests every night.

Despite these challenges, our team continues to give their all—protecting as many nests as possible and ensuring sea turtles have a future here. Your support makes this possible. Every donation helps us protect turtles, strengthen local communities, and keep this work going strong.

Thank you for being part of this journey. We couldn’t do it without you, and we sincerely hope we can continue counting on you to help save sea turtles.

Links:

• Follow us on Instagram.
• Visit our webpage to learn more about our program.
• Check our social media for project updates.

First of all, thank you to each of our donors for your continued support. Thanks to the funds raised during the first trimester of the year, we were able to complete much-needed ATV repairs and purchase the equipment necessary to carry out daily surveys throughout the next seven months of the nesting season.

Over the past two weeks, we trained our new field technicians and traveled 797 km (495 miles) across the northern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula—from Celestún in the west to Holbox in the east—to set up our sea turtle camps in Celestún, El Cuyo, and Holbox. As of today, our three teams are already surveying the beaches, recording nesting activity, and protecting sea turtles and their nests with professionalism and dedication.

These achievements, however, come with challenges. As many of you may know, several conservation projects—including ours—lost critical funding due to changes under the new U.S. administration. While we are working hard to secure additional support through new project proposals and grants, this unexpected setback could affect our capacity to carry out surveys. These funds are vital to cover fuel, food, and lodging for our field teams.

So please, stay with us. In addition to your generous donations, help us spread the word. Share our work with your friends, family, and coworkers—some of them may also be inspired to join our mission and help us protect sea turtles and make this small corner of the world a little better.

The nesting season has only just begun. We may not have thrilling updates yet, but we certainly will in our next report.

With gratitude,

The Team at Pronatura Península de Yucatán

Links:

• Visit our webpage to learn more about our program
• Check our social media for project updates
• Follow us on Instagram