Intercepting plastic to save sea turtles
An update from Judith Morales, Parley’s country coordinator in Mexico
Ever year on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, four of the planet’s seven species of sea turtle come to nest amid the area’s beaches and dunes. Hawksbills, green sea turtles, loggerheads and leatherback sea turtles all prefer areas where there is no artificial light and noise, and places where the dunes and their vegetation are well preserved. Unfortunately, these more remote areas are often polluted by marine plastic waste.
Over the course of 2019, Parley Mexico has been working in collaboration with the Natural Protected Areas National Commission (CONANP) with the support of 50 local partners to organize 25 cleanups in the following protected areas: Area de Protección de Flora y Fauna (APFF) Yum Balam, APFF Isla Cozumel, Parque Nacional Isla Contoy and Parque Nacional Tulum.
The objective of these cleanups is to specifically intercept marine plastics that pose a risk to sea turtle species that are critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable, according to the IUCN Red List. The impact that plastic pollution in the ocean and beaches poses for sea turtles is multi-pronged. The most well-known is that turtles and other animals mistake the plastic for food and ingest it, or get tangled in fishing lines and ghost nets.
In the nesting areas, plastic accumulating in beaches and sand dunes can increase the temperature of nests. If a critical threshold is surpassed, the eggs in the nest can die, or the population can turn to females, as temperature defines whether the offsprings will be male or female – a process called temperature-dependent sex determination. Hatchling sea turtles can also become entangled in plastic after emerging from their nests in their way to the sea, making them easy prey for predators.
Above photos: Maria Andrade and René Salinas, Pronatura Península Yucatán. This photo: Thomas Lipke
So what’s at stake, and why are we focussing on these areas?
This year between April and September, Pronatura Península Yucatán registered 1,045 hawksbill turtles and 788 green turtles nests across 24km of beach in Isla Grande in the APFF Yum Balam.
CONANP PNIC and the PROREST community monitors checking the nesting beach in Parque Nacional Isla Contoy found 155 hawksbill nests, 29 loggerhead turtles and 300 green turtles in a 8.5km stretch of beach.
In the Tulum National Park adjacent beach, the nesting season is from April to December. CONANP has registered 3,552 nests of green turtles, 185 of loggerhead turtles and 1 nest of hawksbill so far along a 4.5km section of beach.
Integradora Mexicana Ambiental Tierra Antigua A.C. working at Ixpalbarco beach at the APFF Isla Cozumel, found 680 nests of mainly green turtles in 2km beach.
In these four protected areas this year, we intercepted 7,523 kg of waste with the participation of 528 volunteers. Plastic doesn’t belong in the oceans, or on these vital beaches. We need to protect the sea turtles’ critical nesting areas from plastic pollution. Thank you to all the organizations and volunteers that made this possible.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
AVOID plastic whenever possible, especially single use
INTERCEPT plastic waste, and participate in beach cleanups
REDESIGN your life and consumption habits
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