Tortugas Dive Site near PDC?

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AggieDiver

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My wife and I did a dive with Blue XTSea to a site called Tortugas or Las Tortugas near PDC way back in 2006, and it was absolutely covered with huge turtles munching away on sponges. We stopped counting at around 55 turtles in a 45-50 min dive if I recall correctly. I have a friend going down to PDC for a vacation and planning to do some diving, and I wanted to recommend it if it was still there and still full of turtles. Does anybody know if there are still plenty of turtles around the site? And is there a "season" when the aggregate there when they are more prevalent than others? If he asks his dive op about taking a trip down there, are they going to know where he is talking about? TIA for any answers from folks who have been there more recently than I have.
 
I think I did that dive once. Turtles everywhere! I got an Op to take us over to dive it again a few years later, but it wasn't the same. May not be the same place, or maybe it is seasonal? I'd love to do it again.
 
I did that site a few years ago - or at least the dive op claims - and I only saw a few turtles. I've seen more at Paso del Cedral.
 
I am kind of thinking there is probably a seasonal component to it and a bit of knowledge of the exact depth/location by the dive guide. In looking at some of the pictures and descriptions online, some folks are not going to the same place we did. It was a kind of broad sloping plane for a bottom with tons of sponges and fans and a decently strong current, but not much else to see. We drifted along between about 45-55' and saw more turtles than we could count, and every one of them was huge. And nearly every one was just perched next to a sponge in the lee of the current just munching away, with no care whether we were there or not.
 
I've never done the mentioned dive, but I saw the biggest turtle I've ever seen on the 3rd dive of my life. That dive was in front of Paamul. I've always suspected it was due to the turtle hatchery at Xcaret.
 
My wife and I did a dive with Blue XTSea to a site called Tortugas or Las Tortugas near PDC way back in 2006, and it was absolutely covered with huge turtles munching away on sponges. We stopped counting at around 55 turtles in a 45-50 min dive if I recall correctly. I have a friend going down to PDC for a vacation and planning to do some diving, and I wanted to recommend it if it was still there and still full of turtles. Does anybody know if there are still plenty of turtles around the site? And is there a "season" when the aggregate there when they are more prevalent than others? If he asks his dive op about taking a trip down there, are they going to know where he is talking about? TIA for any answers from folks who have been there more recently than I have.
I might have actually been on the same dive !!!! Tortugas as I remember was Awesome...Pedro kept pointing them out. Everyone on the boat were REALLY happy ! The group also encountered a HUGE WALL of Tarpon on that trip...It parted like a Huge Silvery Sliding Glass Door as we went through and then magically closed behind us....One of my Highlight Life Dives.
 
I might have actually been on the same dive !!!! Tortugas as I remember was Awesome...Pedro kept pointing them out. Everyone on the boat were REALLY happy ! The group also encountered a HUGE WALL of Tarpon on that trip...It parted like a Huge Silvery Sliding Glass Door as we went through and then magically closed behind us....One of my Highlight Life Dives.
It was just my wife and I and the DM on the day we went over to Tortugas. Would have been around May 2006. We had come back to Coz for the dives we missed while we were stuck there through Hurricane Wilma.
 
I've never done the mentioned dive, but I saw the biggest turtle I've ever seen on the 3rd dive of my life. That dive was in front of Paamul. I've always suspected it was due to the turtle hatchery at Xcaret.
I know the dive site is somewhere near Xcaret. It would make some sense if there is a hatchery there. We did our 2nd dive right near Xcaret and saw a HUGE green moray just laying up under a ledge at about 35'.
 
I dived Playa del Carmen twice. The first dive excursion was in January 2016. The second one was last November. In both excursion I dived the site called Tortugas.
In 2016 I saw several turtles. Last November only one. Sad.
Perhaps there is a better time in the year to see turtles in Playa del Carmen. I don't know.
Further more, if you want to see turtles, the best option would be to visit Akumal from the beach. you can swim snorkeling past the buoy line and you will see lots of turtles (at least that was what I saw in January 2016.
playadelcarmen-dive-sites.jpg
 
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