The Punta Pargos Green Turtle Monitoring and Protection Program 2008/2009
We have undertaken a new level of research on the Punta Pargos Project this winter. In collaboration the Costa Rican Interior Ministry, Randall Arauz and the team at Pretoma, we have started an Inconel (visible) tagging operation to closely monitor the nesting activities and migratory patterns of our Chelonia Mydas. This will give us the ability to gather data on growth and productivity of individuals with more accuracy than previously possible. By monitoring the growth of our nesting females we can monitor changes in growth rates and determining the health of the food supply they forage on year by year, we can gather new information by drawing comparisons with other cohorts that are being monitored around the globe. Migratory information we hope to gather will help us more effectively address threats to the turtles during their off-nesting season migrations, and coordinate fisheries to lessen their impact on migrating cohorts. In the coming year we hope to attach GPS monitoring equipment and track migratory activity day by day for a complete knowledge of this important nesting group. This will answer many questions and give us a tool to protect our turtles while traveling their most vulnerable routes. Work with the Costa Rican MINAE is very important, the MINAE is responsible for Wildlife, Trees, and septic integrity, all dynamics that directly affect the health of our nesting turtles. Marc W. Ward has been deputized by Eduardo Viales Rodriguez, head of the Santa Cruz Canton, Guanacaste, Tempisque district of the MINAE (Interior Ministry of Costa Rica) to monitor and protect the integrity of the Punta Pargos nesting area and help enforce environmental laws in the coastal zone of the Canton. This is not only an indicator of the success STF has had in the field but also of the experience and level of expertise the project has gained while operating the Punta Pargos Project over the last several years. It will take the support of all stakeholders involved to accomplish recovery and sustainability of the Chelonia Mydas/ Green Turtle cohort nesting on Punta Pargos. The project has been kept alive with volunteer support from people who have seen the value of a healthy marine turtle population in the Eastern Pacific, as well as the individual efforts of our dedicated program director on Punta Pargos. The Punta Pargos Project has been funded through corporate and private donations, and local fundraising events.
Sea Turtles Forever would like to give a special thanks to The Marine Conservation Action Fund
for supporting our research team on Punta Pargos for the 2009/2010 season. We will be able to field a much larger team this nesting season due to the support of MCAF, and continue to upgrade our important mission in Costa Rica.The support from MCAF will allow us to double our patrol teams and enforce the current environmental laws more effiecently, the support from MCAF has made a huge difference in our ability to field a larger team and lock down the area from illegal harvest of critically endangered marine turtle eggs, and carry out our important research on Punta Pargos.
With this kind of support, we can take giant steps in the protection of these endangered turtles and the healing of our diminished marine environment.
2008-2009 Season:
We have secured 120 Green turtle nests on the project for the 2008/2009 season, and lost 29 to poachers, with twice nightly patrols. It takes time to change a culturally imbedded practice with patience, compassion, and understanding. The only way to accomplish change in a cultural practice is through a sound strategy, long-term commitment and education. We may have a lesson to learn about ourselves while trying to protect these endangered marine turtles from extinction near the equator. As the wealthiest country in the world we are one of the nations that can afford to assist other nations with inadequate enforcement resources, but we cannot afford to miss-manage our own bad cultural practices. The sociology that comes into play on the project is the most important aspect we have to manage, and support from the local Costa Ricans is a key factor in success. You need to have support from the majority of the people you work among to change anything. We try to instill an understanding of the implications of illegal harvest and the benefits of a sustainable resource to the coastal populace. And educate the chideren in the elementary schools. The locals support us, other than a few hard-core poachers. A large percent of the illegal harvesting is done by people from distant towns, and the locals cannot police the beach from these outsiders. The number of secluded coves we patrol are easy to enter and exit from numerous places and make poaching extremely hard to police. The local populace has asked us to stop the outsiders from taking the nests and work with our project closely. Without our nightly patrols all the sea turtle eggs would be taken by outsiders who come to Punta Pargos because it has historically been and area of illegal egg harvesting for decades. Changing an imbedded cultural practice takes more than just a few years of marine turtle biology. It takes full effort by a wide range of people working together for what they believe is right and staying the course on the ground for the time necessary to accomplish sustainability of the resource. It will take many years of continued effort to make a difference before people will break their cultural practice of illegally harvesting the eggs of what are now critically endangered species. To let this illegal harvest drive the marine turtles of Punta Pargos into extinction would be a catastrophe for Costa Rica, and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. STF and its Punta Pargos Green Sea Turtle Protection Program are going into their 8th year of operation. Are we half way to change, or just beginning? Working in collaboration with Costa Rican Governmental and Non Governmental agencies and our supporters in America, Sea Turtles Forever is slowly but successfully changing the culturally imbedded practice of the illegal harvest of marine turtle eggs on Punta Pargos.
Sea Turtles Forever!
