Cozumel, Quintana Roo — Several sea turtle hatchlings surprised tourists at Mr. Sancho’s beach club on the island’s southern end when they emerged and crawled through a beach area filled with tables, chairs and loungers.
Video recorded by visitors and shared on social media shows the tiny turtles moving across the sand between beach furniture occupied by tourists, who pull out their phones to capture the moment. Some of the furniture sits close to the hatchlings’ path as they make their way toward the sea.
Other footage shows the turtles reaching the waterline while visitors stand nearby, watching and recording. The area appeared to have no tape, stakes, netting or other markers to cordon off the section of beach where the hatching took place.
It remains unclear whether the nest had been previously identified or registered, or why furniture was still set up on that part of the beach at the time of the hatching.
Sea turtle protection and nesting areas are regulated in Mexico under the official standard NOM-162-SEMARNAT-2012, which establishes requirements for protecting, recovering and managing sea turtle populations in their nesting habitat.
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