The roped-off square on the beach is a nest

Four species of sea turtle nest on Aruba: leatherback, loggerhead, green, and hawksbill. Nesting runs from roughly March through September, and hatching from about May into November, which covers most of the family travel calendar. Eagle Beach is the best-known nesting stretch, with nests also recorded at Boca Grandi, inside Arikok, and occasionally on Palm and Malmok beaches.

The markers are placed by volunteers from the local conservation foundation, who patrol the beaches through the season, log every nest, and come back to count the hatchlings. Aruba has protected turtle nests and eggs by law since 1980, and the penalties are serious.

The rules are easy enough for a six-year-old to own, and giving them the job works better than lecturing: stay outside the stakes, fill in any holes you dug before you leave the beach, take beach chairs and toys off the sand at night (a hatchling that hits a chair leg can die trying to get around it), and keep phone lights and flashlights off the beach after dark. Hatchlings navigate by the brightness of the horizon over the sea. A phone screen genuinely sends them the wrong way.

If you find a nest that has not been marked, or hatchlings heading inland, do not pick anything up. Call the number posted on the nearest marker or contact the turtle foundation directly.