Tag: wildlife conservation

One in a thousand

Leatherback turtles frequent much of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica during the months of February and July to lay their eggs. One egg has a market value of $2 and one turtle can lay a clutch of up to 100 eggs. For poachers this is a significant income and poaching is rife on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. But without eggs hatching, the species will disappear. This is where Biosphere Expeditions and its partnership with LAST (Latin American Sea Turtles) comes in.

Our joint mission is to patrol the beach on a nightly basis and relocate as many clutches of eggs to a guarded hatchery as possible, thus preventing the poachers from taking all the eggs. For this a whole host of trained “foot soldiers” (Biosphere Expeditions team members) is need to monitor the beach, catch a turtle before she lays, wait as she digs her nest, then catch the falling eggs in a large plastic bag and whip them out from beneath her before she starts to fill in the nest and camouflage her tracks. Biometric data are also taken, and the nest re-dug by hand by the team member on duty in the hatchery. The nest, now safely in the hatchery, is guarded 24 hours a day for the next 60-70 days until the hatchlings emerge.

Magali Marion MSc is the lead scientist at Pacuare Research Centre. For the past three years she has worked tirelessly training volunteers, delivering lectures, leading night patrols, working with the local community and generally acting as the perfect role model for a successful conservation programme. “The key problem,” she says, “is that this is a public beach, so we have no control over who comes onto it.” The weekends are the worst with a noticeable increase of poachers lurking in the undergrowth. “Foot soldiers are really important,” says Magali, “as their number determines the amount of patrols we can run.”

“I’m amazed at myself and the energy this project unleashed in me!” says Janet Hoffberg a 76 year-old passionate animal advocate from Florida. The reward? To spot a turtle before the poachers and safely deposit the eggs in the hatchery. But, as Theresa Bowman, aged 43 from Germany, points out, “it’s not all black and white – we are used to the poachers being the ‘evil ones’, but there is more to it.”

This is a complicated issue and Magali has put herself right in the middle of it, working with the local association (La Asociacion para el Ambiente de Nuevo Pacuare) to offer poachers the chance to become guides for the project. There are ground rules – no alcohol or drug consumption, no more poaching, a willingness to learn and work with volunteers from around the globe. Some pass the test, some fail, but the beauty of Magali’s strategy is that whichever camp you fall into, there must be no confrontation between poachers and patrols. “Our mission is long-term. We will not eradicate poaching from Pacuare in the next year, but we believe that by providing alternative livelihoods to the community and involving children, we will change their mindset so they understand that natural resources must be exploited in a sustainable way. It involves long hours of talking and exchanging with different people without judging them. When we get to understand what is the social reason that pushes people to poach, then we can get to the root of the problem, which in Pacuare is geographical isolation, low education and poor job opportunity.”

As rainy season sets in a second threat to the turtle population is revealed – erosion. With constant storms raging out at sea, the high tides flood the beach, reducing the availability of viable leatherback nesting sites. Cyclical erosion has always occurred on this coastline, but with the added pressure of climate change, this erosion is becoming more extreme. “Nesting grounds are degraded by erosion”, says Magali, and this year’s El Nino event has been very intense, which is now leading to an equally intense rainy season. We have reinforced the hatchery, so that it will not be eroded by the waves, but if the water table gets too high, the nests can be flooded from below.”

So what does the expedition mean in conservation terms? 15 clutches of eggs safely relocated to the hatchery; clutches, which if left in their natural condition would have either been poached or washed out to sea. This amounts to over 1000 potential hatchlings, and based on statistical probability, that is one adult who against all the odds will return in 15 years to lay her own clutch. This may not sound like much, but for a dwindling population of fewer than 4,000 leatherback turtles on the Caribbean coast, every single one counts.

Costa Rica 2016 pictures and videos

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This week it has become increasingly obvious that beach erosion is also a big problem in Pacuare. As a result of global warming more extreme weather events have been observed in the area in recent years, and due to current storms in the Caribbean we have seen very high tides and strong wave action eating away the beach from under our feet. This has also impacted the number of nesting turtles we have encountered. There have been fewer females coming out to nest at night, as there is little to no beach above the high tide line to nest on.

We did, however, encounter a turtle camouflaging her nest, that sadly had been poached, on Tuesday night. Fortunately we managed to recorded her tag numbers and get her measurements. She was an interesting turtle as her carapace was deformed and not very streamlined, and her back left flipper was missing, probably as a result of a shark attack. Only the previous day when we released a clutch of hatchlings, where a few had deformed carapaces, did we wonder if these juveniles would ever make it to adulthood. It turns out they do!

Wednesday, our last night on patrol saw more rain and therefore little turtle activity. Brad joked that, “it is like being on Survivor and preparing for a marathon each night!” But morale was still high. “Camaraderie doesn’t happen unless you’re doing something challenging”, said Janet from the UK. It certainly has been a challenging, but also a very rewarding time for the team, and turtles alike, but as the expedition draws to a close another nest emerges – 34 writhing hatchlings ready to begin their adventures at sea.

So with a joyous farewell dinner, with cake from Magali, candelabras by Theresa, and Scottish folk songs from Gordon, it is time to leave our rustic abode, and return to whence we came. We will not forget our experiences here in Pacuare and it has been an fruitful inaugural expedition for Biosphere Expeditions, with a total of 15 nests recovered and relocated in the hatchery. That’s over 1000 potential hatchlings! Thank you team for all your hard work in making this a reality. Many thanks also to our project partners LAST and especially to Magali for her knowledge, skills and dedication in the field – it was a pleasure working with you. A big thanks also to all the staff on site, to Silvia our cook, to the research assistants, to Pablo and especially the local guides, Mauricio, Carlos, Nene, Hernan and Steven who led us to the turtles each night. The poaching issue, although far from being resolved, is under the watchful eye of LAST and the Environmental Association of Nuevo Pacuare, and we look forward to continuing our relationship next year on another expedition.

Update from our conservation holiday protecting leatherback and other sea turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

Our second expedition team have arrived, been trained in patrol and hatchery methodology, with Janet digging the “perfect leatherback nest.” In the hope of washing off the post nest-digging sand, most of us dived straight into the ocean. The ocean had other ideas, however, and tumbled us around in the surf, spitting us out with more sand in our clothes than before we had entered!

The first night proved a fruitful patrol for Magali’s team – as they encountered a smallish (141 cm carapace length), young turtle, bearing no tags. She took a very long time to drop her first eggs and then only laid 59, which is quite a small clutch for a leatherback. Holly from the UK who was given the task of collecting the eggs, said afterwards, “Being a new mum myself, I could relate to her not really knowing what she’s doing!”

Sunday night, the new moon, which had so delighted us with its light, enabling us to finally see where we were going, suddenly became obscured by dark, black clouds, which duly opened upon us. Then a nesting turtle suddenly appeared for Catherine, Carol, Terry and Janet, and it was action stations! The turtle was already laying and we peeped into the nest to see a clutch of glistening eggs. Oscar, our guide, quickly tried to excavate as many eggs as possible, but she was nearing the end, so he deftly inserted one end of a long measuring tape into the nest and waited until she had finished covering up and moving off, before unearthing the eggs – there’s no way a human can compete with the power of a leatherback’s flippers, so this was the best option. After rescuing Terry’s glasses from a near burial, we took the data and brought the eggs to the hatchery, which fortunately for us, was only two minutes away.

Other patrols witnessed two poaching events, and it seems that our thief (from last week) is still at large, as whilst taking a pee in the bushes, one of the poacher’s own egg bags was swiped! “Now that’s Karma!”, said Ida.

On Monday loud knocks woke us up at 21:30. There were initial grumbles at being woken up during our pre-midnight patrol nap. But as the word “hatchlings” were uttered we all got out of bed, bushy-tailed and bright-eyed. There was a clutch of twenty-five baby leatherback turtles ready to head for the ocean. We all observed them being measured and weighed before finally making their last mad dash for the sea. During the night a few more emerged and by the morning Theresa, who was on early morning hatchery shift, released the last lost little wanderer on to the beach.

Tuesday afternoon Magali excavated the nest and another nine turtles were dug out from the bottom of the nest. Everyone released a turtle, cheering them on as they crossed the beach. Dustin was up for hatchery duty next and just as we were all about to leave, he noted a few little heads starting to poke out of one of the nests. “I had just started my shift,” exclaimed Dustin. A couple of hours later as Theresa and Janet were about to take over hatchery duty, fifty-nine hatchlings had emerged and they measureed, weighed, and then finally released the little ones. What a night!

Update from our conservation holiday protecting leatherback and other sea turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica