Dolphin Discovery formed a human task force in the campaign to protect the blue crab. Written By Dolphin Discovery.
Cancun just like other parts of the Riviera Maya, is considered one of the areas with the highest urban growth in recent years worldwide. For more veterans who saw its inception 30 years ago, its wealth of natural areas was the main attraction and there was a feeling of respect between humans and animals sharing a common property such as land. Decades passed and the lucky tourist demand sees Cancun is developing before our eyes at a speed that Mother Nature cannot keep up with, new large residential lots, modification of mangrove systems are part of the long list of environmental impacts carried out on a small or large scale in our city. This has a name, fragmentation of ecosystems and the ability to stop it is almost impossible.
If everyone is so focused on urban development, who is going to take charge of the animals living in? That is why small actions make big changes, every year the campaign to protect the blue crab is celebrated on the 18th to 20th of October. Blue crabs have an important role in mangrove conservation as they make their nests in the roots of plants which provide oxygenation for the plants and are they are responsible for eating everything on the beaches and surrounding areas that are dead. During this time they cross streets, asphalt, bridges without understanding truck, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings in the search of salt water which lay their next offspring, as a result many of them being run over unconsciously citizens . The blue crabs live up to 8 years, to which an entire generation of the species is considered as being endangered in Quintana Roo.
Dolphin Discovery in collaboration with the Government of Quintana Roo, actively collaborate with the team at the Department of Environmental Education and Conservation, and dozens of trainers and associates joined the noble cause of saving the maximum amount possible (it is the females at the greatest risk). The task is to help cross the female crabs with thousands of offspring in his belly to a secure areas, working through the night with flashlights, moving the crabs carefully into buckets and leaving them where they are not at risk.
A total of 70 people from different departments led by Rosario Garcia, Biologist at Dolphin Discovery and coordinator of the department crossed more than a hundred females, armed pickers with lanterns, buckets, brooms worked at night in municipalities such as Isla Mujeres, Playa las Perlas, dolphin beach, areas where this species has chosen by the amount of beach. Helping the conservation of the species and consciousness of the public creates an awareness in our children, each year more people are joining this cause, even 10 year olds are accompanying their parents with flashlight in hand creating a clear conscience about the environment and this insures that the coming years will continue to have blue crabs spawning on our shores.
