Here’s a first report of the season by our expedition scientist Fabian Carrasco:
The leatherback season started on 26 February with the first nesting female. Unfortunately she was poached. Later we had a nest in situ on 1 March. Her tracks were hidden by the waves in a couple of hours and the eggs remained safe from poachers. Our patrols with local assistants and international research assistants have started and in the past 43 days we have recorded 52 successful nesting activities:
* 1 natural nest (in situ)
* 25 nest relocated in Styrofoam coolers
* 9 nest relocated higher up the beach between markers 95-104
* 19 poached nests
* 1 nest saved by the Coast Guard and Police O.I.J.
Among the nests relocated in styrofoam coolers is one of green turtle (from 2 April). The others nests are from leatherbacks. No hawksbill have been seen yet.
The fist hatchlings are due between 1 and 8 May at marker 79.
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