Loggerheads at an impasse.

• Author: Hardman, Chris
• Position: Americas !Ojo!

MEXICO'S CARIBBEAN Coast is famous for beautiful beaches with coconut palms and soft sea breezes. Since the mega-resort of Cancun was built more than thirty years ago, smaller developments have sprouted up along the coast, attracting visitors from around the world. But the rapid growth and accompanying human activity threaten to halt the arrival of a different type of visitor--an ancient wanderer from the sea--who was using the beach long before humans set foot on its ivory shores.

Every summer giant green and loggerhead sea turtles haul their four hundred-pound bodies across the beach to bury their eggs in the sand above the high-tide mark. One of the most important nesting sites in the Caribbean lies sixty-seven miles south of Cancun, right in the middle of the path of coastal development.

According to DNA studies by University of Florida molecular biologist Brian Bowen, this particular beach, named Xcacel, has the most genetically diverse population of sea turtles in the world. He calculates that if Xcacel's nesting habitat is disturbed, 20 percent of the genetic diversity in Atlantic loggerhead turtles and 22 percent of the genetic diversity in Atlantic green turtles will be lost forever. Bowen has labeled the potential development of Xcacel as one of the most urgent sea turtle conservation crises in the world.

For years, Mexican conservationists lobbied to make Xcacel a protected area. Their efforts were rewarded in 1994 when the government passed an ecological ordinance that prohibited any tourist development in the area. But then, three years later, the Spanish hotel chain Sol Melia was allowed to purchase 113 acres of Xcacel to build a 1,400-room all-inclusive beachfront resort. Shocked environmentalists--including the husband-wife team of Julio Zurita and Mary Louise Whitlow--sprang into action. Zurita had studied sea turtles at Xcacel when he worked as a marine biologist for Quintana Roo's College of the Southern Border. He knew firsthand how a...