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A
LITTLE HISTORY
Marc and Rachel Ward started sea Turtles Forever in October 2001. Having spent several winters on the Nicoya Peninsula
in the Pacific North West region of Costa Rica they saw first hand Sea Turtle nests being poached on many beaches. Their eagerness
to help stop Sea Turtle egg poaching was accepted and appreciated by Pretoma, a Costa Rican Sea Turtle and Shark conservation
group led by Randall Arauz. With the encouragement and support of Mr. Arauz, Marc and Rachel began talking with everyone they
came into contact with in America and Costa Rica about how important it is to help protect the Sea Turtles and their nests,
and began studying marine turtle conservation in depth, first hand in-field.
In the winter of 2003 Marc and Rachel went back to Costa Rica with a strategy
developed, to a little beach town called Punta Pargos. This town is very small and has many local Costa Ricans as well as
a wide variety of different nationalities who live there. As with any beach town fishing is a part of its economy and necessary
for survival. There are a lot of fishermen who get up at daylight and start walking the beach to go to work.
The
opportunity to take a nest in a second world fishing culture is irresistible for some, and easy pickings. Sea Turtles come
into the beach to nest on the high tide, usually after dark. In the morning fishermen or anyone else who wants sea turtle
eggs walk the beach looking for the tracks that the sea turtle left behind in the sand. They follow the tracks up to the nest
and with a long skinny stick poke into the sand until the end of the stick comes up with egg yoke on it. Then they dig up
the nest of sea turtle eggs. Marc and Rachel talked with the poachers about not poaching the turtle eggs but the poachers
would just laugh and dig up the nest while they were talking to them. It became apparent that for the time being the fishermen
and other Punta Pargos Ticos (Costa Ricans) were going to have to be left out of the sea turtle nest protection loop until
a solid program was in place.
After trying a few different techniques Marc and Rachel discovered that
simply camouflaging the freshly laid nested saved 80% of them from being poached. With the help of other volunteers Marc and
Rachel get up about 2:30am and walk, ride bikes, ride motorcycles or drive (if they were lucky enough to have access to a
car) to get to the beach by 3:00am. Sometimes the group would split up and half would go to one beach while the other half
went to another to try and head off the poachers. We use to take PVC sticks, (to fend off loose dogs and snakes)
and flashlights and look for new turtle crawls. Often times there would be no crawl and everyone would go home and
go back to bed until daylight. But once every few days there would be a new crawl that had not been disturbed by poachers.
When they found a new nest they would work like mad trying to rake the sea turtle tracks smooth and replace the high tide
line so that when a poacher did walk by he would have no idea a sea turtle had ever been there. The patrollers always go back
and check everyday just to make sure the nest is undisturbed. About 25 nests were saved between November and March 2003-2004
this way and all of them made it past the poachers. This was a modest beginning, but tested our strategy in the field.
Most of the poachers have no idea what effect they are having on the sea turtle population. In fact most are
uneducated and have misguided beliefs about how sea turtles function. When a poacher digs up a nest they usually trade the
eggs, which are about 80-120 eggs per nest for about 3-4 beers at the local bar. The Leatherback (one of the turtles very
close to extinction) lays eggs that are about the size of tennis balls and apparently they taste bitter so if a poacher digs
up a Leatherback nest the eggs are useless and often get fed to their pigs.
99% of the sea turtle
nests laid in Central and South America are poached unless they are protected. The governments of these countries are too
under resourced to provide protection for most of the nesting beaches but many do central American countries have laws
against sea turtle egg poaching. In Costa Rica the law is three years in prison for poaching sea turtle eggs. Unfortunately,
there are very few resources for law enforcement especially for something like sea turtle egg poaching. The poaching
of Sea Turtle eggs has been in practice for centuries and is part of the Costa Rican culture, but if not addressed promptly
could push several species into extinction. Sea turtle egg poaching is a key factor in the declining number of sea turtles
nesting in Costa Rica, but protection is an international responsibility. Costa Rican Leatherbacks migrate all the way to
waters off Chile to find jellyfish. The turtles that nest in Costa Rica are not strictly Costa Rican turtles they are the
worlds sea turtles. For another example, Leatherback sea turtles nests in Borneo, but then do a foraging migration all the
way across the whole Pacific Ocean to Oregon feeding on jelly fish for several months in Pacific North West waters, and
then they head back across the Pacific again to nest in Borneo, a trip that covers over 13,000 miles of open ocean. In the
summer they can be found between 1-100 miles off the coast of Washington, Oregon and California. Another example is the
Pacific Green, Olive Ridley and Loggerheads, which do similar although not as extensive foraging migrations which bring them
to Mexican and even Oregon waters in the summer too.
There are five of the eight sea turtle species
nesting on or around Punta Pargos. There are the Leatherback, the Pacific Green & Black, the Olive Ridley and the Hawksbill
sea turtles. This is a very diverse group for such a small area. We have many research opportunities at our fingertips.
The fisherman have reported a definite decline in the number of nests they come across today compared to 10
years go, 90% by their observations. In combination with the egg poaching the drag nets, long-lining and the shrimp boats
there may soon be to few sea turtles left to sustain their species and in time they will go extinct. All of the sea turtles
are on the threatened/endangered species list. The Leatherback as well as the Hawksbill are extremely close to extinction.
Protection of sea turtles is vital to the world’s ecology. It is not limited to just the sea turtle nesting
beaches, but the nesting area is a defining factor in the survival of the species.
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