A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

This picture was taken on a small island off the coast on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the small town Parismina. The town Parismina, is bordered by a very long beach that is known to be a common Sea Turtle nesting ground. Unfortunately, in many developing countries such as Costa Rica and other countries in Central America Sea Turtle poaching is a pretty lucrative business. The meat and eggs are highly sought after commodities in many Asian countries, and in addition, the shells of Hawksbell Sea Turtles are harvested (killing the turtle) because they are used for jewelery due to the the many color patterns on its shell. Parismina used to be large exporter of sea turtle products, because it was a good source of fast money.

Now, sea turtles in Parismina are actually protected from poaching and have been for the past 15 years due to the efforts of this guy in the picture. This is Jerry. He along with his brother started protecting the beach from poachers by physically patrolling the beach each night (when sea turtles come to the surface to nest). Sea Turtle poaching is illegal anywhere in Costa Rica, but people do it anyway because it isn't enforced. Jerry and his brother patrolled the beaches and if they encountered poachers they contacted the coast guard which then came to remove the poachers. At first it was just Jerry and his brother, but over time, people from Parismina have started to join their conservation team. Even some of the past poachers are part of their team now.

Jerry has even gone a step further, in that now when they see a sea turtle laying her eggs they actually remove the eggs as she plops down into her nest, and they take them to their sea turtle egg nursery. They build a new nursery every year so that people, and animals don't get accustomed to where a bunch of baby sea turtles are hatching. That is what this picture is showing. This is the very beginning stages of their nursery for this year. because sea turtle nesting is just beginning, they are just now setting up their nursery which is essentially just a bigger sea turtle egg nest that they monitor 24/7. Jerry said that they typically end up with 10,000+ eggs in the nursery.

This kind of program is so cool to me because it came into existence without any government help. It's a true grassroots movement that has been a real success. Sea turtles are absolutely amazing and that night Jerry and a couple of the members from his group took us on a patrol of the beach and we saw two Leatherback turtles nesting! They are huge. They are truly the relatives of dinosaurs. One of my classmates actually broke down in tears because it was so beautiful. The beauty of these giant creatures is part of what makes it so sad to see their populations dwindle. Poaching is not even the largest concern for these sea turtles. Climate change is showing a rise in the sea levels which is eroding the beach away which is where sea turtles nest, plastic in the ocean is often found in the stomachs of these turtles either as small plastic particles or whole plastic bags. Leatherback turtles eat jellyfish and in the ocean a jelly fish and a plastic bag look pretty similar. Especially since sea turtles don't have good eyesight. Also development along beaches brings along with it lots of lights which is bad for sea turtles because go towards the light after hatching from their nest. This is because in a natural setting the ocean is lighter than inland which is darker due to trees and foliage. So baby sea turtles instinctively go towards the light which is where the ocean should be. If their is a streetlight nearby though that is not in the direction of the ocean then the baby sea turtle is going to move towards that instead of the ocean and most likely die due to exhaustion or predation by birds, dogs, racoons, the list goes on. Baby sea turtles have lots of predators. So there are still lots of other problems associated with sea turtle conservation but Jerry is doing a good job with what he's got.