Improve conditions for our sea turtle heroes

Amid numerous reports on social media of thriving wildlife populations due to the absence of quaranteening humans, we are actually seeing the complete opposite happen on our turtle nesting beach.

Latin America has been hit hard economically, unemployment levels are at a record high and there are still hundreds of thousands of people with "suspended" contracts or reduced contracts - and no financial support from the government. This has resulted in many families  struggling to make ends meet, and in turn people have resorted back to poaching eggs in order to feed their families.

 2020 has been a tremendously difficult year for many, and NGO´s are not the exception. There have been no subsidies from local authorities in order to continue doing our work, donations are becoming increasingly rare as many people around the word are affected economocally, and our volunteers - who in normal times provide us with over 90% of our fundng, have disappreared due to travel restrictions and closures.

However, its not all bad news!

The Pacuare project has contnued operatng through this whole pandemic - because we have a commitment. Not only to the Ministry of Environemnt, whom overee our research and provide us with the permits to do so; but also to the local community of Pacuare, who in more ways than we think, depend on the project for economic sustenance and cultural interaction.

We also have a commitment to the turtles. 

Withour our albeit limited presence on the beach, we are sure that 100% of the nests laid in 2020 would have been poached.

Therefore we are immensly proud to give our supporters an excllusive preview of our official report for 2020

This year we managed to save 95 nests from three species of Sea turtle - the endangered leatherback turtle, the critically endangered hawksbill turtlle, and the vulnerable green turtle.

This accounts to us saving 50% of leatherback nests, 47% of green turtle nests, and an incredible 80% of hawksbill nests.

We estimate to release 4565 hatchlings from the 3 species this year. (we estimate, as there are still two nests waiting to hatch!).

This is an amazing acheivement , considering that since March we have received no outside help, and this work was undertaken by our dedicated biologist, Eduardo, and our fabulous local and international Research Assistants.

We also must give credit to the community of Pacuare , who despite not being able to earn a salary this year, have continued to support the project and work the beach with us.

If you have been supporting us, we still need you.

2021 is going to be an even bigger challenge as we try to recover and raise funds to be able to continue our work. Unfortunately, the construction of the facilities at the station has been put on hold until we have to funds to complte them.

So please, share with freinds, family and colleagues, and help us continue protecting the turtles of Pacuare!

Links:

• LAST - Latin American Sea Turtles

It has been a difficult period of time for the whole world, including our Project in Pacuare.

Since the beggining of March, travel restrictions begun in Costa Rica. This translated into the cancellation of all our international volunteers' visits which fund about 70% of our project through their fees and donations.

As an organization, we had to take a step back and prioritize our sea turtle conservation efforts over rebuilding the volunteers' dorms. Here is a summary of the results obtained to date for 2020s sea turtle nesting season in Pacuare:

Leatherback turtle:

A total of 62 nesting females were identified and 150 nests were registered. Our team was able to protect 50% (75 nests). A total of 52 hatched nests have produced 2,539 baby turtles. The emergence success of these nests was 70%. The nesting season for this species is expected to end this month. 

Green turtle:

Only two nesting females have been identified and 14 nests have been reported so far. Our team has saved 5 of these nests (35.71%). Only 2 nests have hatched and produced 136 baby turtles with 65.96% emergence success. 

Hawksbill turtle:

Only 2 nesting females have been identified and 3 nests reported. Two of them (66.7%) were protected by our team. There have been no births yet.

Unfortunately we have a figure of 10 hunted turtles, most of them in the last two months. Two hawksbills and 8 green turtles. Boats are seen daily in the sea and as far as we know turtles spear. Every hunted turtle information has been reported to the Pacuare Coast Guard station but we have not had anyone caught or punished. At some point they have come to speak directly with us or to walk the beach but with all the covid emergency and the little staff they have had, they do not promise us much support this year.

On the other hand, we are seeing light at the end of the nest and our country will be ready to receive international tourists once again starting on August 1st. We hope that this change can help us overcome little by little our lack of funds and our lack of volunteers to patrol the beaches and save more sea turtle nests. Also, locals have helped our project so much by patrolling the beach at night and saving nests from poachers.

If you are interested to be part of this initiative, don't hesitate to contact us and schedule your visit through volunteers@latinamericanseaturtles.com 

Thank you so much for your donations. Your kindness gives us strenght through these troubling times to continue doing our best for the sake of sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica and Latin America.

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