Category: Expedition Blogs

Covered in black sand on knees arms and faces, the Costa Rican Biosphere Expeditions team practices digging perfect replicas of sea turtle nests on the beach, to prepare for our shifts guarding the fenced hatchery. We all lie face down on the sand and dig a vertical tube with one arm fully extended, straight down, as far as we can reach. Then we excavate a rounded cavity to one side of the base of the tube, like a boot. The holes we create replicate the holes made by female leatherback turtles, who use their 75 cm hind flippers like a hand, to deftly scoop sand from the bottom of the tube.

Fabian, the lead scientist, let us feel the hole he dug in the sand to test what the perfect example of an egg cavity should be like. Fabian reaches into everyone’s hole and gives people tips for perfecting the shape. “Make your base a little longer and a little wider wider” Fabian suggests to me after testing my first try. Once we perfect our holes and pass Fabian’s checkout test, we sprinkle sand back into the hole, like a mother turtle gently covering the eggs. Tapping the top of the hole down with a fist, we finally graduate turtle nest building class and we wade into the waves to splash black sand off sandy limbs. Barb, Phil and Cynthia laugh as they get knocked around by the strong surf and emerge beaming. But we are still not completely ready to be hatchery guardians.

Fabian points out that the fence around the hatchery keeps out predators such as raccoons or dogs. Each nest is covered by a white basket-like cylinder over the top to stop smaller predators and pests, such as crabs or insect larvae, from attacking the eggs. The baskets covering each nest also corral the emerging baby turtles, so they can’t flipper to the ocean and the citizen scientists can record how many hatchlings emerge from each nest as well as measure 15 of them from each. During their hatchery shift, every hour, guardians peak into each basket to see if a nest might be hatching. If it is, they call the other citizen scientists on the radio so people can come help, because there can be over 80 tiny turtles clambering to escape the confines of the basket. Some lucky hatchery guardians will get to be the proud adoptive parents of a new clutch of eggs, brought to them by other citizen scientists patrolling the beaches looking for turtles laying eggs. They can then employ their newfound skills as a nest cavity excavator.

Carved into the vegetation bordering the beach, the fenced-in hatchery now protects over 7,000 sea turtle eggs. As the nesting season continues, the hatchery will protect over 10,000 eggs, and statistically each year only ONE in 10,0000 baby turtles will survive to reproduce. Each clutch of 80-100 eggs is removed from a natural sea turtle nest and re-burried to incubate in the sand within the guarded hatchery. Citizen scientists will keep watch in the hatchery 24 hours a day for the 9 months of the turtle nesting season. Each nest takes between 55-100 days to hatch depending on temperature. Warmer weather helps the eggs develop more quickly, and during cloudy cool weather, incubation is slower. We hope that hatchlings will emerge while we are here.

Later that day, after a delicious traditional Costa Rican dinner prepared by chef Johanna, we check the schedule written on a whiteboard to see who is on hatchery duty and who on beach patrol that night. Beach patrol shifts last from 2-4 hours depending on if it’s light out or not. Daytime shifts are 2 hours , night shifts are 4 hours. Our citizen scientists cover the 4 hour night shifts this evening, starting at 21:00 and running through the dawn after 06:00. Some people get ready for their upcoming hatchery duty donning long pants and red headlights and others take a nap to wake up in the middle of the night to start their shift.

The next morning, during breakfast, we all chat about how everyone’s evening went. We learned that during the hatchery shift from midnight to 03:00 Phil, Barb and Cynthia were lucky enough to receive a bag filled with pool-ball sized turtle eggs, from citizen scientists who just carried the 6 kg bag for over two hours. Phil started work quickly and dug the long vertical shaft with the boot-shaped hollow for the eggs to rest within. Each of the three guardians took turns placing eggs into the hole, counting each out loud: “….88, 89, 90!” They carefully placed sand over the eggs and marked the new nest with sticks. They tagged the new nest with a number and letter designating its place in the grid of the hatchery. Everyone was  excited that our team helped protect this clutch of 90 eggs from poachers, stopping this particular endangered treasure from being sold on the black-market as snack.

In the afternoon, our crew cut and sewed baskets to protect the nests. Once the handicraft was complete, we ventured to the hatchery and fixed the edges of the new baskets around the tops of the nests buried the previous nights. The first clutch of eggs of our expedition is now safely tucked into its new resting spot in the hatchery. Some day in the next few months, “our” turtles will venture out into the ocean. Perhaps one of ours will be the one in 10,000 that will return to this beach to lay eggs again.

The Costa Rican adventure began with the minibus ride from the capital of Jan San José through a thrilling tropical rain storm. As participant Jillian said “when I looked out the windows, I thought it was just like a rainy day at home in the UK, just with tropical vegetation, but when I stepped out into the downpour it was totally different, so warm, such an amazing feeling”.

Costa Rican wildlife is abundant and from the minibus our citizen scientists spotted troops of monkeys and a sloth. The animal spotting continued on the boat ride to the research station, where the tunnel-like trees, arching over the canals hosted birds, more sloths and monkeys. Even freshwater turtles rested on logs in the sun by the sides of the canal.

Soon after arrival training began, so everyone could be prepared for the upcoming starlight beach partrol to search for nesting leatherback turtles. Everyone jumped right in, amongst other things to practice measuring turtle shell length and width on the model turtle.

Later that evening, small groups of our citizen scientists followed researched asisstants and the expedition scientist down the beaches with no lights on. Everyone’s eyes adjusted to the ambient starlight and the glow of bioluminescence from the crashing surf nearby. We scanned the waves lapping the sand for dark mounds that could be turtles preparing to flipper up the sand to the high tide line to dig a nest. “Is that one? Look at how rounded that black shape looks!” Said Phil as he pointed to the white froth of the waves hitting the sand.

“What did you think?” Celine, the research assistant asked as we approached it and she shone a red headlamp on it. We had been fooled by a “tree-turtle”! It was the rounded root-ball of a palm tree with the trunk angling up the beach, which we couldn’t see until we had more light. We got used to being excited by many “log-turtles” rolling in the waves throughout the 2.5 hour patrol, but Celine helped us learn how to refine our search pattern. Most exciting was finding a set of tracks from a turtle that may have nested the previous day. The tracks were so wide and deep it looked like a tractor had driven out of the water towards the forest. The massive leatherbacks, can be close to 2.5 metres long, and more than one person remarked at how unbelievably huge the turtle model was at the research station. So we couldn’t miss one on the beach if it was there, but none of the three search parties were lucky to find a turtle this evening. But we learnt to look for black mounds floating in the surf, to feel the difference in the sand as it got softer underfoot if we crossed a track, and how you feel drunk if you walk through one of the massive holes they dig to burry their eggs in because you stumble into and then out of a deep pit in the sand.

The sand sparkled greenish blue with each step as we walked closer to the water on the way back to the station. Fireflies glowed so brightly they almost ruined our night vision. In the cloudy night sky, lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the forest edging its way up to the sand. The adventure has only just begun and we are enjoying every step of the way.

I have arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica and enjoyed seeing lush parks and flocks of parrots while walking around the city getting everything ready for your arrival. I had a good meeting with Nicki Wheeler of our partner organisation Latin American Sea Turtles (LAST). She will be meeting you at the hotel on Monday morning and sending you on the minibus to meet scientist Fabian and I for the 40-minute boat ride to the Paquare beach research station. When you arrive there, lunch will be ready and we’ll get started learning everything we need to know about the first evening beach patrol. One part of the research station we will all be excited to visit is the hatchery, where over 60 turtle nests are incubating already, some ready to hatch during our expedition!

Nicki let me know that this year is an El Niño year, which means the ocean is warmer and it’s looking like a peak year for turtle nesting. LAST started work on Paquare in February, relocating turtle nests to the safe hatchery where the eggs take close to 60 days to develop. Our efforts will be well needed as there are many poachers on the beaches this year as well, and we hope to encounter the nesting females and relocate eggs before they are removed by people wanting to sell turtle eggs as food.

Rising global temperatures have made the sand on beaches warmer, which makes turtle eggs develop as mostly females. In order to keep the sand in the hatchery cooler, to ensure even numbers of male and female turtles, LAST has covered the hatchery with shading mesh to cool the sand.

March through July is the prime nesting season for leatherbacks on the east coast of Costa Rica, where we work. The height of the season is right now, so there is a good chance some of you will encounter nesting female turtles during night patrols. Other species such as green and hawksbill turtles also nest on Paquare beach during July to October. Rarer are the Olive Ridley turtles who nest in the region June thought November.

It’s amazing to think of so many species of turtles sharing the same beach, it’s quite lucky that they nest at different times of the year so they are not digging up each other’s nests! The baby turtles will continue to hatch throughout the year, but November through February, the beaches are quiet, and only the site manager of the research station, David, stays to release the last of the hatchlings. You will meet him on Monday as well and hopefully he and Fabian will have great stories to share about hatchlings and nesting females when we arrive.

To prepare for your journey to the research station, carry water, snacks, and a warm shirt in case the air conditioning is cool in the van. For the boat ride keep handy your sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen as well as a rain jacket. If you brought binoculars or a camera, keep them handy but in a Ziploc in case of rain. This 45-minute boat ride though calm, costal-forest canals is beautiful and you might encounter wildlife such white-faced capuchin monkeys, sloths, caiman crocodiles or toucans.

Looking forward to exploring with you soon!

Hello Costa Rica expeditioners,

With the trip starting in about a week, it’s a great time for introductions, an overview of the project and what we hope to accomplish with the help of citizen scientists from around the world. I’m Lucy Marcus and I will be your expedition leader for the turtle research trip in Costa Rica. I look forward to returning to this richly abundant costal region of Central America to explore the beaches and help protect the sea turtles nesting there.

I am currently in California organizing my gear and making sure I have all the items listed in the project dossier packing list. Make sure you check off all the items, so you will be comfortable and correctly outfitted as well! It will be great meet you all in Costa Rica and introduce you to our turtle research scientist Fabian Carrasco who you will meet at your arrival to the Paquare beach research station.

The first person you will meet in Hotel Santo Thomas is Nicki Wheeler, from our local partner organisation Latin American Sea Turtle. Nicki will send you on your way on the mini-bus which transfers to a boat that brings you through the coastal wetlands to the research station. Fabian and I will be awaiting your arrival at the research station where you will get settled in to our cabins before going straight into learning how to measure turtles and collect eggs during our nightly beach patrols.

The 2018 expedition report is now published and explains how successful we were last year. It was fantastic to read that 65 % of the nests were saved due to volunteer effort and that the turtle population in the region we work in is stable. Working with Fabian this year, we will continue with our efforts to protect turtles. As stated in the 2018 report, here is what we will do this year:

• conduct nightly beach patrols
• record data on nesting turtles including measurements
• tag turtles
• re-locate eggs to a safe hatchery
• monitor the hatchery
• release any turtles that hatch
• exhume nests after hatching
• work on hatchery material construction
• do beach clean-ups and marine debris removal

I arrive in Costa Rica on 2 May and will get the research station prepared for the expedition. I will send another message with my local contact details once I am on the ground in Costa Rica.
Once I am at the research station, communication will be minimal as there is limited reception for local mobile phones. Remember that the research station and the region around it does not have any access to WiFi. Local phone reception is only available on the beach near the research station, not in the cabins and a local SIM card is necessary to make mobile phones function correctly (more details are in your dossier). My phone is available for emergencies and for minimal communication with the Biosphere Expeditions HQ. I will share my local number with you once I have arrived in Costa Rica and picked up a SIM myself. Hopefully you can resist the need for frequent international communication with the outside world, and you can enjoy being off-grid for the expedition, soaking up the experience of remote beach isolation.

I imagine you are all reading our expedition material and know that your gear and clothing is essential for this project. It takes some time to make sure we all have dark clothing for night patrols, comfortable shoes for walking many hours on the beach each night, rain gear and a headlamp with a red light. A pack for carrying gear snacks and a large enough water bottle to support your journeys on the beach in hot weather will all come in handy too.

I look forward to meeting all of you and searching for turtles on the beach together. Safe travels and see you in Costa Rica!

Lucy Marcus