Arribada - Costa Rica

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.