1. Sea temperature is always warm due to Yucatan Current 🌊
Bringing warm water from the south. This current comes up from Honduras through the Yucatan Channel to the eastern part of the Gulf.
2. Cancun Dry Season is US and UK Winter
The temperature in Cancun is pretty consistent right through the year around 84. However, the big benefit of going there in our winter time ( November to April ) is that’s winter time in the Northern Hemisphere.
This makes Cancun a very attractive winter sun destination.
Wet season is our Summer time May to October.
3. Seaweed issues being addressed in Cancun
Seaweed and the huge quantity of it have been causing issues for beachgoers and marine life in Cancun for over a decade as it becomes more and more plentiful.
It has a rotten smell, prevents turtles from laying their eggs on the beaches and the seaweed ( also known as sargassum ) laying on the water blocks off the sunlight going through to the coral reefs underneath the sea which starves them of energy to grow.
Getting rid of the seaweed
Hotels in Cancun and Puerto Morelos spend 100s of thousands of dollars per year for it to be removed and transported to sites for disposal. Some have also paid for Boats that remove the seaweed. They have scooping mechanisms that lift it out of the water but its not cheap.
Offshore Seaweed barriers are also erected using netting or floating bumpers to catch the sargassum or block it .
4. Parrot Fish Poo creates beautiful white Cancun beaches 🏝
The beach sand in Cancun is cool on your feet. Despite the high temperatures, this sand has evolved from crushed coral. The crushed coral comes from parrot fish poo. 70% of the sand derived from this a single Parrot fish can produce 100kgs of sand a year !!!
The other parts of the sand are from small fragments of crushed shells which get ground into the sand from the waves from storms and wash up on the shore
5. Great Maya Barrier Reef has an insurance policy in case of hurricanes 🐠
The reef is declining due to tourism in the area which has generated pollution. It is also affected by increased temperatures and overfishing
But what destroys the reef the most is hurricanes. A 4 or 5 grade category can damage 60% of the reef.
The key thing here is that over 95% of a wave’s energy can be reduced by an intact coral reef. Therefore it negates the damage hurricane can do once it reaches land.
However the more hurricanes there are, the more reefs are getting damaged .
The advantage of a small hurricane for coral reefs is that it brings down the temperature and so there is less thermal stress on the reef ( due to current global warming ).
6. May is turtle season for laying eggs 🐢
Mexico has 7 out of the 8 species of turtles that exist. Turtle eggs are left in the sand of the beaches and are well protected.
Given that only 2% of turtles survive in the ocean it is imperative that they are a protected species.
Sand temperature needs to be between 26 and 34 degrees – outside of this the embryos will die.
You can volunteer here to help between May and November .
7. Cancun on Limestone peninsula
Cancun is situated on a Limestone peninsula which being porous creates underwater rivers and lakes but of fresh water not salt water.
8. The clocks don’t go back or forward in Cancun ⏰
The clocks don’t go back or forward in Cancun – the earliest sunrise is 6.04 am on 7 June and the latest is 7.27 On 16 January. Sunset –earliest – 18.04 on 27 November and latest 19.33 on 4 July.
