On the out-of-sights of Cuba’s Guanacapipes peninsula, park ranger Roberto Varela looks at a green sea turtle, lumbering on the beach, and something ancient from the time of the dinosaurs is unfolding.
“Seeing them laying eggs and knowing their nests are going to be protected makes you feel like you’re doing something different,” said Varela, who helps oversee turtle research in a park that occupies much of the peninsula.
Mounds of reddish-brown sargassum seagrass line the sand, blocking the turtles’ path to their nesting grounds. Dead coral, oysters and rocks are scattered on the beach as a result of cyclones that increase in frequency and intensity. Many female turtles hatch eggs, a phenomenon that scientists attribute to the high temperatures of the nests.
Cuban scientists say that more than two decades of research on these beaches proves that climate change is accumulating new problems even in underdeveloped and remote environments such as Guanahacapipes, which lies at the westernmost tip of the island of Cuba.
“It’s disappointing, because there are things we can’t control,” says Julia Azanza, a professor of biology at the University of Havana who helps direct the peninsula’s turtle research. Despite that.”