A viral video of men digging up sea turtle nests in Oaxaca has prompted a federal investigation and fresh outrage over wildlife crime at one of Mexico’s main sea turtle nesting sanctuaries.
The footage, shared widely on social media, shows several young men with white sacks extracting eggs directly from nests in the sand and handling turtles during nesting — with one person seen grabbing and throwing a turtle.
🚨 La Profepa investiga el saqueo de nidos de tortuga en Playa Escobilla, Oaxaca, tras difundirse un video donde varias personas extraen huevos de uno de los santuarios más importantes de México. 🐢🌊 pic.twitter.com/RUy6xEKA83
— Guillermo Ortega Ruiz (@GOrtegaRuiz) April 2, 2026
The incident occurred on Escobilla Beach, a protected sanctuary considered the world’s leading nesting beach for olive ridley sea turtles. It lies in the municipality of Santa María Tonameca, on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast, near the beach towns of Mazunte, Puerto Ángel and the countercultural enclave of Zipolite.
Mexico’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) said via its X account on Wednesday: “Regarding this matter, we inform you that we have already been to the location and have an ongoing investigation.”
Local media sources reported that officials have begun actions to identify those responsible and noted that looting and commercializing turtle eggs is a federal crime punishable by prison terms and fines.
Under Article 420 of the Federal Penal Code, capturing, damaging or killing sea turtles, or collecting their eggs, is punishable by one to nine years in prison and fines of 300 to 3,000 days’ wages, with penalties increased when crimes occur inside protected natural areas.
Escobilla Beach, where 4.4 million eggs were destroyed in 2019 due to Tropical Storm Narda, is a federally decreed sanctuary where all sea turtle species are protected and listed as at risk under the NOM‑059‑SEMARNAT‑2010 standard.
Experts and conservation groups warn that illegal egg extraction threatens the reproduction and long-term survival of olive ridley turtles that use Escobilla Beach. The strip of sand roughly 7 kilometers long hosts mass nesting events, known locally as arribadas, in which thousands of turtles come ashore to lay eggs.
Social media users have demanded that authorities move beyond investigation to concrete action, calling for constant surveillance, better training for security personnel on the beach and sanctions for those responsible.
Some have accused Profepa’s leadership of negligence and demanded the removal of its chief, Mariana Boy Tamborrell, over what they describe as a pattern of weak enforcement.
With reports from El Universal, Infobae and El Debate
