We are about two-thirds of the way through the 2024 turtle nesting season, which runs through the end of October. Our local conservation group, CEA (Centro Ecológico Akumal), has volunteers who regularly count nests on Half Moon Bay, Akumal Bay, Jade Bay, and South Akumal Bay. CEA publishes the counts on Instagram once a week.

Here are the most recent nest counts. A total of 705 nests have been recorded across the four bays that CEA tracks. That's about half of last year at this time (1,395 nests), but similar to both 2022 (784 nests) and 2021 (662 nests).

On Half Moon Bay, nests this year (green line) are tracking about 20% less than last year at this time (gray line) after tracking ahead of last year for the first half of the season. Nests on HMB are tracking worse than 2022 (orange line) and better than 2021 (blue line).

If you would like to volunteer for daytime or nighttime turtle patrols or need more information, please reach out directly to CEA at: info@ceakumal.org or www.ceakumal.org.

It's important for everyone to continue following the guidelines below through the end of the nesting season. We encourage everyone to click here for a printable version of the checklist below for steps you can take to protect the turtles during this nesting season. Please feel free to print it out and place it in your home or rental for everyone to read!