A seashore stuffed with sea turtles whereas visiting Costa Rica

It’s not fairly daybreak when my tour group is allowed to step onto the seashore at Playa Ostional to see an enormous arribada, an arrival of olive ridley sea turtles. We virtually make an enormous fake pas. A number of of us come inside inches of stepping on one of many big turtles who’re nestling into the sand to put their eggs. We notice simply in time that the turtles are in all places, and we’d higher step very, very rigorously.

We arrived at this Costa Rican village at about 4:30 a.m., after traversing two hours of tough roads. Apparently our bus even drove by means of a shallow river to get us right here, not that it was mild sufficient to see. I’m with a small group of individuals touring Costa Rica with Select Life Sober Adventures. Our group’s information, naturalist and all-around Costa Rica skilled Marco Fallas, teamed up with Playa Ostional information Maria Aviles to introduce us to the methods of sea turtles.

Associated: Elusive sea turtles caught snuggling and making out on video

“My grandfather began with the mission,” Aviles advised us in Spanish, whereas Fallas translated. “That’s why it’s in my coronary heart.” Ostional is a poor and remoted village. The folks right here have an intense symbiotic relationship with the shelled guests. They defend the turtles, and the turtles energy the village’s financial engine.

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What it’s like to go to Playa Ostional

If you wish to see turtles at Playa Ostional, it’s a must to comply with the foundations. Don’t contact something on the seashore, even trash. If a turtle is strolling towards the ocean, don’t get between her and the water. Don’t go within the water with the turtles. If a turtle is laying eggs, she is in a trance so you’ll be able to go proper up shut and take photos. Keep together with your group. Along with Aviles ensuring we behaved ourselves, stern-looking uniformed park rangers dotted the seashore.

We had an hour to wander as a gaggle, testing the turtle present. Turtles arrive over the course of three days. They waddle up the seashore till they select a spot to construct a nest. It’s a messy enterprise. The turtles don’t respect earlier nests. If one other turtle already dug a gap and laid her eggs, a newcomer has no scruples about overlapping territory and kicking out someone else’s eggs. Which is why eggs are all around the seashore, emitting an terrible odor. Or is that the turtles? In all probability a few of each. In a while, considered one of my touring companions stated he thought he’d by no means get the turtle scent out of his t-shirt.

Apart from the large turtles and the eggs, right here and there hatchlings are rising from nests made two arrivals in the past. One was staggering in circles, looking for its bearings, whereas a giant turtle furiously dug her nest proper subsequent to it. The hatchling appeared in peril of being flipped again into the opening at any second. I yearned to choose it up and transfer it out of flipper vary. However no, I adopted the foundations and touched nothing.

Then there are the birds. I’ve by no means seen so many completely happy vultures, leaping and dancing round like they had been at a music competition. Plus gangs of chickens and roosters sauntering alongside the seashore. I don’t know why I used to be shocked to be taught that chickens eat turtle eggs.

Egg harvesting controversy

I used to be much more shocked to be taught that folks eat sea turtle eggs. They’ve lengthy been a supply of each protein and money for the local people. And a few folks think about them an aphrodisiac, calling them “sea Viagra drugs,” Fallas advised us. Some native bars serve them as appetizers.

Playa Ostional is the one place the place it’s authorized for folks to reap sea turtle eggs, however nonetheless inside tight guidelines. Again in 1984, Aviles’ grandfather Basilio Vega Figueroa shaped Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Ostional with another native elders. Together with College of Costa Rica researchers, they devised a system permitting townspeople to collect turtle eggs throughout the first 36 hours of an arrival on a part of the seashore.

Judging from my go to, lots of the eggs laid within the first day get destroyed anyway by turtles excavating nests constructed by earlier turtles. In response to Aviles, locals take away lower than 1% of the eggs the turtles lay on the seashore. However egg gathering continues to be a controversial observe amongst conservationists. Some fear that any harvest opens the door for a black market in turtle eggs, since it might be very onerous to hint eggs from level of harvest to level of sale.

Different locations to see sea turtles

My group’s journey to see the turtles wasn’t on our itinerary, as turtles don’t preserve to a daily schedule. It was an exciting, last-minute add-on. In the event you go to Costa Rica, or one other turtle vacation spot, you may additionally have the chance to stand up within the wee hours and witness the spectacular sight of a seashore stuffed with big turtles. Ask your guides or innkeepers to hook you up with the newest native turtle intel.

George Shillinger, govt director of conservation group Upwell Turtles, is aware of all one of the best locations to turtle watch.

“For olive ridleys, Costa Rica and Mexico are wonderful,” he stated. For leatherbacks, he recommends Trinidad, Gabon and Pacuare, Costa Rica. At Juno Seashore and Jupiter, Florida you would possibly see West Atlantic leatherbacks nesting. In Hawaii, inexperienced turtles swim in close to shore habitats and hang around on resting seashores.  “Mexico additionally has miles of Pacific coast the place nesting greens (referred to as black turtles in Mexico), olive ridleys, leatherbacks and even hawksbills are sighted,” he stated. “One different enjoyable reality: we now have big critically endangered leatherback turtles foraging on jellyfish off the U.S. west coast, in waters off California, Oregon and Washington. Actually, they’re California’s state marine reptile.”

Pictures by Teresa Bergen