Snorkeling with Sea Turtles!

Have you ever wanted to go snorkeling with sea turtles? Then Akumal Bay may be your best bet.

Snorkeling with sea turtles here is accessible and easy! You can watch these gentle giants munch on sea grass in fairly shallow water while snorkeling on the surface above–no need to dive down deep. In fact it’s prohibited. These green sea turtles are endangered and protected. Snorkelers must wear life jackets and stay floating on the water above them.

 

Where:

Akumal Bay is located in Mexico on the Riviera Maya between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. A taxi from the Cancun airport will take one hour.

During the Covid crisis Akumal Bay was closed off to everyone other than guests staying at one of the resorts or guided tours. Which was great if you’re a guest! Imagine having deserted beaches and snorkeling with sea turtles whenever you want. In the past this excursion was so popular that snorkelers congested the water, damaged the reef, and caused the turtle population to decrease. Some guides even quit coming here. But now, after the crisis has past, the reef has recovered and the healthy happy turtles are repopulating. It’s a great time to go snorkeling with sea turtles again. Newly added safety measures and restricted access will continue to protect these beautiful green sea turtles into the future.

 

Lodging in Akumal Bay

There are 3 all-inclusive resorts scattered along this scenic coast—Akumal Bay Wellness Resort, Secrets for Adults only, and Hotel Caribe—in addition to condos and private villa rentals. When you look at the map on Booking.com you’ll see other resorts listed with the Akumal address but they are not within easy walking distance of the beach where you’ll find the turtles!

We stayed at the Akumal Bay Wellness Resort, an all-inclusive oceanfront property which had incredible bargain rates for a 5 night stay (that also included paddleboarding, yoga and water aerobic classes). The walk from here to the Akumal Dive Center, the area where you’re guaranteed to see the turtles, is about a 5 minute walk north along the soft, white sandy shore.

Akmul Bay Wellness Resort

The beauty of staying in Akumal Bay allows you to go snorkeling with sea turtles right in front of the resort, or from their main feeding area in front of the Akumal Dive Center in the early morning and late afternoon where guided group tours are absent. Staying a few days gives you increased opportunities to see the sea turtles as not all days will be conducive based on high winds or strong currents.

Look at those waves in front of our hotel!

On stormy days, getting a Mayan massage is the perfect way to soothe those achy muscles…

 

 

Tips for Snorkeling with Sea Turtles:

Go on calm days. Check the forecast. Days with wind at 15 mph will be wavy out at sea, making it hard to stay in place once you do see a turtle. And the wind churning up sand underneath the sea grass makes visibility murky. Plus the current will tire inexperienced swimmers.

Go with a guide. At least the first time. When you look at the water from shore in front of the Akumal Dive Center you will see a confusing arrangement of ropes. Some encircle the protected areas where no one can enter–not even guides. Other ropes provide a route guides can take participants around a 45 minute circuit through sea grasses (green and white triangular flags mark the beginning and end points). Another set of ropes indicate a boat channel where anyone can snorkel on their own.

Go on sunny, overcast and even rainy days. I went on all three conditions–and the best visibility was a rainy day! The colors appeared more vibrant with no glare from the sun.

Go early. Sea turtles are busy feeding around 7am and visibility is clearest. Crowds of group tours haven’t yet descended on the bay to murk up the water. (Snorkelers are supposed to float with legs on the water, but I saw many inexperienced snorkelers with legs hanging down and kicking up sand.)

Rent snorkel gear from the Akumal Dive Center. They provide short fins (a must), snorkel and mask, and a thin short life jacket perfect for snorkeling–all for $15 a day (9-5pm).

I attempted to go snorkeling with sea turtles on my own the first day with my own gear–a panoramic full face mask with a foldable built-in snorkel and an inflatable snorkel life vest. After one try I ditched both. The cumbersome vest kept riding up, choking me and pushing off my mask. And the mask fogged up so much I couldn’t see a thing. The next day I rented their equipment and took a guided tour. Dramatic difference. The life jacket was short and trim–not bulky like typical life vests. And the lightweight snorkel mask fit perfected, never fogged and was much easier to use.

 

Walk away from the crowds and snorkel down the coast. Look for dark masses in the water (sea grass) and snorkel independently, careful not to go inside the roped off protected areas. Go early around 7am and again around 4pm for highest turtle activity. Staying at the Akumal Bay Wellness Resort, we could snorkel from our beach. But the windy conditions and strong currents during our stay made getting out far enough too risky. Instead, we walked down toward the Akumal Dive Center and went snorkeling with sea turtles alongside the boat channel rope.

 

Use the rope! If snorkeling independently, you can use the rope in the boat channel (in front of the Dive Center) as a guide for where to go. Inexperienced or feeling weak? Then use the rope to pull yourself out past the sandy water to the bluer waters where the turtles are feeding. This is especially handy if you are snorkeling by yourself, during an incoming tide or strong currents. Red flags on the beach indicate strong currents and windy conditions not conducive to swimming. (Red flags blustered in the wind for 4 of 5 days of my stay on this bay.)

Make sure you look at the map and understand where you can go on your own, as some ropes are only for guided tours. And some areas are strictly forbidden—like turtle breeding grounds.

When you find a turtle, just hang out for awhile. Wait and watch. They have to come up for air every so often, and when they do—what joy to watch! They swim up to the surface, intent on their purpose, with no fear of you. Here’s a video I captured with my GroPro of one swimming up for air.

 

Tour options:

Akumal Dive Center is located steps away from where you will go snorkeling with sea turtles. Go on a guided tour and keep the equipment till the end of the day if you want. Tours begin at 9am. Rent equipment and follow the guide a short walk to the water.

Or join a boat tour. Private boat tours ($30) last an hour and take you out to the first coral reef where you might see manta rays, colorful fish and sea urchins.

Our experienced guide pointed out a barracuda, box fish and ray we wouldn’t have seen on our own. Our boat driver stayed with us as my travel buddy wasn’t comfortable swimming in the ocean. But on this tour, she didn’t have to. She held on to a life ring preserver while the guide pulled her around. Then we swam toward shore through the sea grasses to see the giant green sea turtles!

Just specify that you want to go snorkeling with sea turtles. Some of their boat tours will take you further out to the coral reefs where there’s no sea grasses, and thus no turtles.

Akumal Kiosks are located to the north, closer to the arched entrance from town to the bay. Individuals will find you and offer their services. For $25 they will accompany you around the 45 minute roped circuit to go snorkeling with sea turtles. They begin at the green triangular flag and end at the white triangular flag you can see out at sea. This route goes around the protected perimeter of the turtles.

Commercial guided group tours are aplenty. Many are offered from area hotels hours away. These tours are often combined with stops at Tulum ruins, Coba ruins, or Dos Ojos cenote. Transportation includes pick up from your hotel anywhere along the coast from Cancun all the way south to Tulum. Prices start at $99, and go way up from there.

 

Photography Tips when snorkeling with sea turtles:

Forget trying to use those cheap disposable cameras. You won’t capture anything. You need a professional camera with underwater housing (very expensive–even to rent!!). OR a Go Pro.

I used the Go Pro 9. This little waterproof camera was a godsend and easy to use. It fits in the palm on your hand. I also used the Go Pro Floating Handle that would rise to the water surface in case a big wave knocked it out of my hand.  Click on the products for current prices on Amazon. I purchased mine in April and paid $399 for the camera and $25 for the handle. I also used Go Pro’s 3 way waterproof extension grip that I already had. This allowed me to capture closer views of the turtles as it extends 20 inches compared to the floating handle which is much shorter at 6 inches. But I did prefer using the floaty foam handle with the secure wrist strap on windy, large wave days.

I also purchased a couple of unofficial Go Pro products that I wished had worked. One was a telescopic pole that extended 40 inches but it felt flimsy, difficult to attach securely to my Go Pro and extremely difficult to remove. I returned it before I even left on my trip. In my humble opinion, the official Go Pro products accessories are worth the cost.

The Go Pro 9 was much easier to use than previous models. And—whoo hoot!—this camera can capture 20 mp images in RAW (verses 12 mp jpegs)!!  Video capabilities are also improved as it now captures 100Mbps Bit Rate in 5K, 4K and 2.7K with improved stabilization to boot.  It also has customizable screens that you can touch to switch lens type, shutter speed or timer and an assortment of live burst, hindsight and other features unique to this model like horizon leveling. Loved the horizon leveling feature–just wish it was also available on photo mode.

I also liked being able to set the video duration to capture short clips, as it’s easy to keep recording when you think you turned it off. And the buttons and battery door seemed simple to operate (did anybody else get frustrated with earlier models like me? I almost gave up trying to use Go Pros.) But I truly loved using the Go Pro 9!

Settings I used on my Go Pro 9:

I chose my one primary video and photo and time lapse settings in advance, and simply clicked the left button to scroll between them when snorkeling with the sea turtles. That way I wasn’t fumbling out at sea trying to figure out my settings. I kept the Hyper stabilization on. I either turned the Timer off, or chose the 3 second delay (also has 10 sec delay). The timer allows you to position yourself in the scene or get closer to the sea turtles when using an extended pole.

Photos: RAW capture so that I could edit and process later in PhotoShop. Set shutter speed to 1/1000 to capture fast moving fish and sea turtles swimming. Auto ISO.  Daylight white balance.

Video: 4K, either 30 or 60 fps, wide lens. Other times I chose 2.7K, 60 fps, ultra wide lens. And for fun used HD, 120 fps to see them in slow motion.

 

Challenges I experienced:

Using the extended pole it was impossible to see the LCD screen so I ended up cutting off the bottom of the turtles in many of my video/pics. Bummer…

Wind! Even though the Go Pro 9 has improved built-in stability, the wind and current really whip you around! It is difficult to stay still above the turtles as the waves carry you away.

Compositional Tips:

Face view. Try to swim in front of the sea turtles to face them.

Profile view. Allow extra room in front of them to show where they’re going. Best for capturing them swimming to the surface for air.

Swim directly above them to capture the patterns in their shells.

Get closer. The refraction of the water makes them appear closer than they are. Hold your camera closer with an extension pole if possible. The Go Pro 9 can focus an arm’s length away. Turtles are usually on the bottom of the sea munching on sea grass (you can hear them!) 3 meters below you. So no fear of touching them since your life jacket will prohibit you from leaving the surface of the water.

Try to include a snorkeler in your frame for size reference, and human interest. If you have a long enough selfie stick–capture yourself.

 

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Pinterest pic for later…