Sea Turtle Conservation & Environmental Education

First and most importantly we finally finished our hatchery, which has walls and a roof made of flexible fencing to protect the nests from predators, and also includes a wall of logs to protect it from the rising high tides. The volunteers who helped in the construction process, which took two weeks of intense work, each painted a sign to hang on each row of the hatchery to identify the nests we relocate there. So each nest in the hatchery will be named after a volunteer, and have a number ie: Pol1. We’ve worked hard with the volunteers not only teaching them about sea turtles, but also about conservation in general, sustainability, and how each of us can reduce our impacts on the planet. We have organized various activities to achieve that goal including: beach clean ups, clean and save the soft plastics that we use to create eco-bricks, watch a documentary on plastic to generate a conversation about it, and make bread, cake, and coconut oil to show that it’s possible to make common things that are wrapped in plastic. During our two beach clean ups we collected 5 bags and four bags of trash respectively. And while we washed our soft plastic, we had an insightful conversation about how we here in the project could improve and how each of them could also make changes to reduce our plastic use. 

This group was especially interested in biology and science, so we went to put up camera traps on the Ocean Forest Lodge’s property, which we reviewed a week later. We captured images of great currasow, agudi, and (to much excitement) an ocelot. Since some of the volunteers were here as part of a field course for their universities I assigned them the task of designing a small research project, collecting data, and presenting a 5 minute explanation. Three chose to join forces to do a catalogue of fish species in San Josecito, and one chose to compare bird activity in an area with high human activity with one of low human activity, 

We are working towards starting environmental education and community outreach activities here, and we are in contact with the profesor of the local school about when and how to start classes.

As of now we have 9 nests in the hatchery and one nest relocated outside of the hatchery. It’s possible that one turtle we worked was a hybrid due to the shape of her track, the shape of her shell, her nesting process and her facial features. We will be anxiously awaiting her babies to see what features they present. 

It seems as if each volunteer that has passed through has had an enriching and positive experience with us, and it’s been a pleasure to share the experience with them. They’ve told us that they have learned a lot and we have also learned from them.