Once again, users of social networks made viral the finding of a female turtle that got entangled in the excessive amount of sargassum on the beach of Paamul, municipality of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo.
In photographs posted on Facebook, users denounced the discovery not only of the female turtle that died in the attempt to lay her eggs, but also the death of about 200 eggs that were crushed below a “mountain” of sargassum also in Paamul.
According to the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Mar Amor, the finding was made last Saturday July 27th, when environmentalists were finally authorized to enter and clean the beach, five months after making the request before the corresponding authorities.
“We requested the authorization to collect plastic and trash five months ago, back then the sargasso was not such a big problem yet. And when we finally obtained the permit, we have found lots of turtle nests under mountains of seaweed, obviously, once the eggs hatch, the baby turtles are not able to get to the surface with tons of sargasso on top of them,” said one of the members of Mar Amor.
One of the environmentalists discovered, entangled in sargassum, the body of a female turtle that died in the attempt to reach the coast of Paamul to spawn. The body was in advanced state of decomposition already.
Under the body of the animal, about 200 eggs were also found that could not hatch because they did not have the necessary conditions.
Environmentalists posted the photographs on Facebook and requested the help of municipal, state and federal authorities, since they assured that sargassum is significantly affecting the ecosystem.
This is what Mar Amor non-governmental association posted on Facebook:
A member of Mar Amor found this dead turtle entangled in sargassum. Upon lifting it he found “death on a large scale.” This sea turtle was trying to climb to the beach to lay its eggs. But she never got there. There were about 200 turtle eggs trapped under its shell full of worms.
This year under 60% the population of sea turtles are being able to spawn in the coasts of the Mexican Caribbean. We need to do something about it. We don’t know how to deal with the sargassum problem and we need support from the Mexican government, specifucally from SEMARNAT.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom with information from La Verdad
