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| Field Biologists arrival in Costa Rica |
After
traveling for almost an entire day, I finally arrived at my new home in Costa
Rica. I will be living at the Goldring-Gund Marine Biology Research Station in
Las Baulas National Park and will be working for the Leatherback Trust over the
course of the next five months. The purpose of my stay is to collect data on
nesting sea turtle populations. This location is significant due to the
Leatherback sea turtles nesting here, hence the name of the organization I am
working under. I will be participating on night patrols and morning walks along
the beach, temperature monitoring of nests, and hatchery work with relocated
eggs. I will explain more about these projects in future posts; once I am well
practiced on the techniques and protocols regarding these studies. As for now,
it is orientation time. We are getting familiarized with the research station
and surrounding area. Fortunately, we have several key people visiting the
station and giving us a warm welcome. Frank Paladino, who is the President and
CEO of the Leatherback Trust, as well as Aliki Panagopoulou, the Operations
Manager, will be here during the first few weeks. So far, it has been a great
and informative start to the turtle season. However, our arrival as scientists
does not initiate the nesting behavior of sea turtles. They have already been
visiting the beaches of Costa Rica this year. For some species of turtle, they
arrive in mass with hundreds of turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs at once.
This rare event is called an Arribada. Translated from Spanish to English gives
the meaning of “Arrival” and is a fitting word for the start of our work here
in Costa Rica.
Within my first month of being in Costa Rica, I have visited several beaches and become familiarized with part of the countries Pacific coastline. Our research station is on Playa Grande, which is just outside the city of Tamarindo. Past an outcrop of rocks to our north is Playa Ventanas. These two beaches are where our conservation efforts are focused. North of us is the secluded Playa Carbón and farther above that is Playa Flamingo, which is a popular tourist location that is highly developed. Our sister project, in Playa Cabuyal, is the farthest north I have been and also has a team of biologists and volunteers who patrol that remote beach. To the south of Tamarindo lies Playa Langosta, which is studied by another sea turtle organization called Kuemar. Playa Ostional sits even farther to the south and is home to a true Arribada of olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). We waited a couple of weeks to hear from a local tour guide in Ostional that the Arribada had started. Once we received word that the turtles were arriving, we made plans to drive down for the afternoon and witness this incredible event. It also happened to be on Alessandra’s birthday. She is one of our field biologists, so she had a very special birthday with sea turtles. Lasting about one week at a time, over a million olive ridley sea turtles come ashore to deposit their eggs across the 7 kilometers of beach. We were fortunate to see them both in the day and at night, because the local tour guide just so happens to be dating Callie, another one of our field biologists. We usually only see between one and four turtles per night at Playa Grande, so it was an amazing experience to see so many turtles coming to nest at the same time. It was estimated that between 60,000-80,000 turtles were on the beach during that day and night we were there. So many turtles were coming and going, we had to be careful not to step on any flippers while walking the beach at night. At each of the water crossings, where water flows out of the mangroves and into the sea, we had to avoid the occasional turtle drifting its way back to the ocean. I had one turtle bump into my legs as I crossed the water. Overall, it was a magnificent display of nature at its best. Thousands of sister turtles, because only the females come on land, arriving synchronously to lay their eggs and provide one more generation to help them endure the calamity that has beset all sea turtle species. However, this visit has also shown me some of the worst nature has to offer. Strewn across the beach were broken egg shells, dead hatchlings, and plastic trash. Topics which are reserved for future posts. For now, just ponder on the multitude of sea turtles that are arriving together this week at Playa Ostional. It was truly an incredible sight.
