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EspañolA couple nights ago, our turtle rangers met a Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) in Ostional, and gathered some data.
We’re pleased with all the press coming out of WILD9. This piece in the San Antonio Current provides a great overview of the event and highlights our work in the context of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor:
Living forest and a tree plantation are perhaps primarily distinguished by the diversity of species present. Howler monkeys, orangutans, giant sloths, and jaguars are the stuff of forests, the substance of biodiversity. For this menagerie to stay healthy, there must be room to roam. In Nicaragua, the founder and executive director of the non-profit Paso Pacífico, Sarah Otterstrom, is working to create that space.
While she has successfully enlisted help from local communities to restore coastal habitat and slowed the trade in sea turtle eggs by paying residents up to $2.50 per hatchling that reaches the surf, her aims extend further. She hopes to one day establish a chain of protected areas linked by ecologically protected corridors along the entire Pacific Coast of Central America. It’s the same concept that first informed a Central American jaguar-protection effort, Paseo Pantera, in the 1990s, and the dream that followed of a Mesoamerican Biological Corridor that hoped to protect undeveloped wilderness from Panama to Mexico.
Rare giant sea turtle found on Stinson Beach
An endangered giant sea turtle rarely found north of Mexico washed up alive on Stinson Beach after drifting possibly thousands of miles.
“This is definitely a rare find, one of only three live olive ridley turtles I know of reported in the scientific literature since 2001 along the Central California coast,” said Todd Steiner, a biologist and executive director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, based in Marin County.
Steiner said the turtle was suffering from what is known as cold-stunning, a unique state of suspended animation that can allow a turtle to survive for months in cold water. The big green reptile was covered with algae, barnacles, shore crabs and ghost shrimp, indicating that it had been floating for a long time. Subsequent blood tests revealed it was malnourished.
We often see Olive RIdley sea turtles nesting on the beach at the La Flor Wildlife Refuge, but shifting currents and climate sometimes get sea turtles a little off track.
Trained by retired US National Park Service Ranger and Paso Pacifico Board Member Rick Smith, our turtle rangers form the “thin green line” protecting thousands of endangered animals and places. Working ’round the clock, turtle rangers patrol the beaches, monitoring nesting turtles, protecting hatchlings from predators, and using non-confrontational approaches to ask that egg poachers cease poaching on their beaches.
We are extremely proud of our turtle rangers, who have now protected hundreds of nests and thousands of baby turtles, and helped us cultivate a culture of conservation within Nicaragua’s coastal communities.
We’re pleased to be included in this piece at the Environmental News Service:
MÉRIDA, Mexico, November 13, 2009 (ENS) – For the first time in decades, the eggs of endangered sea turtles buried on a small strip of Nicaraguan beach will not be collected and sold in local food markets. A program developed by nonprofit Paso Pacífico pays residents up to $2.50 for each turtle hatchling that reaches the surf — almost 10 times what they would have brought from the market.
While only one resident participated in the program last year, this year brought in scores.
“The problem was no one believed we would actually pay for a baby turtle and everyone knew they were going to get cash from the sea-turtle egg trader,” said Paso Pacífico founder and executive director Sarah Otterstrom.
You can read more about our sea turtle conservation programs here.
Photos from the particular hatch (25 years in the making) referenced in the article are here.
Adelayde Rivas, our PR guru in Managua shares a sad story.
The other day she got a call from Paso Pacifico, informing her of an arribada at La Flor, the sea turtles were arriving to nest on the beach. She set aside a mountain of work and errands in Managua to head for the coast, dig her feet into the clean sands of the La Flor Wildlife Refuge, and take pictures of these noble creatures.
She and her camera man arrived at the beach just after midnight. Turtles were still coming ashore to nest on the beach, but she’d missed the huge wave that had arrived earlier — almost 16,0000 turtles had already come and gone. They set up camp and waited until dawn.
The turtles kept arriving, not as many as before, but they were arriving and Adelayde and her camera man got a lot of great photos of turtles digging their nests and laying eggs.
Eventually she and Salvadoran wildlife biologist Ivan Rodriguez took a walk. They came across what they at first thought was a large piece of plastic, only to realize it was a dead turtle. Ivan, noticing nylon thread coming from her mouth, suggested it was very likely the turtle had gotten caught in fishermen’s lines and hooks. It appeared the fishermen had lifted her into their boat to cut the line and release her, but it was not enough. She made her way to shore, but apparently died of internal injuries before she could lay her eggs.
There were over 27,000 turtles who successfully nested on the beach during this arribada, but Adelayde reflects on the foolishness of man. Knowing turtles already face the threat of multiple predators ranging from foxes and dogs, to birds and crabs, we add more danger to the mix as fishermen’s hooks and nets pose serious risks and poachers raid nests for turtle eggs.
The turtle Adelayde and Ivan found dead was probably 25-30 years old, reminding us that it takes a long time for turtles to reach the mature reproductive age. Every fisherman’s hook, every turtle egg consumed by man, threatens the survival of this threatened species.
Eco-tourism is helping sea turtles make a comeback as they travel to Nicaragua and spend money to see the arribadas, but it is important to remember that what can happen to the turtles, can happen to us.
Extinction is forever.
Read Adelayde’s story in her own words (in Spanish) on her blog.
Over at Project Groundswell, S. Neil Larsen, shares his adventures on horseback visiting our Return to Forest program:
Under a midday sun, I guided my horse up a steep, dusty slope, eventually emerging at the top of a ridge overlooking a brown valley, roads crisscrossing the landscape. Though it was the dry season on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, this area seemed more void of life than normal. Above, a large hawk circled, riding thermals up and down the ridgelines, searching for small prey before settling in a large tree, one of the few still standing.
We should have been riding under the cover of dense forest canopy. Instead my skin, pale from the New York winter, steadily acquired a burn.
Every 5 meters were small saplings planted in rows lining the hillside. Around each sapling, the surrounding ground vegetation was removed, presumably to give the young trees the space and sunlight they needed to grow. I had expected to see more dramatic results, but I had to keep reminding myself that these trees were just planted two years ago, and it would take 10-15 years for this degraded former pastureland to resemble a forest.
I was in the middle of a 400 hectare reforestation project of 35,000 saplings of 70 different species of native trees, witnessing the start of what would some day be a dense dry tropical forest filled with spider monkeys, yellow-naped parrots, and ocelots.
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The reforestation project, aptly named Return to the Forest, is the result of a partnership between the owners of Las Fincas de Escamequita, and Southern California based Paso Pacifico. Donn Wilson, a San Diego native and owner ofLas Fincas, bought the property with the intention of returning parts of the land to their natural state.
Read his story in its entirety here.
Picking up Rick Smith’s recent piece at National Parks Traveler, EcoLocalizer has posted about our turtle rangers and community-based conservation programs:
Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization focusing on the Pacific slope of Central America, is helping endangered Hawksbill Turtles in Nicaragua with a compensation-based conservation program based on incentive payments for local people. The financial rewards to locals in exchange for protecting endangered sea turtle nests are making a difference: Rangers have reported that egg poaching is on the decline. And Paso Pacífico plans are to make this program sustainable.
You can see the EcoLocalizer piece here.
We got a brief mention in the local paper today!
Ventura group tags rare sea turtle for study
“The Ventura-based conservation group Paso Pacifico recently tagged a rare sea turtle off the coast of Nicaragua with a radio transmitter that allows scientists to study the endangered species.”
Paso Pacifíco board member, Rick Smith, has written a new piece for National Parks Traveler about the Hawksbills we’re tracking:
The rangers who discovered the two turtles kept them on the beach for two days, keeping their heads covered with wet towels and occasionally pouring water over their backs, so these unwitting reptilian volunteers could help scientists learn more about their dwindling species.
During the second day, a turtle expert from a regional program known as Project Hawksbill came and in cooperation with Paso Pacífico and the employees of MARENA (The Ministry of Natural Resources in Nicaragua) affixed a digital transmitter on the shells of the turtles using a special epoxy. So rigged, these transmitters should allow the turtles’ travels to be tracked when they come to the surface to breath during the next year or two.
This transmitter tagging was no small event. Children were released from school to observe the installation. Officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources were there, as were representatives of the media. It was very emotional when the children applauded when the second turtle returned to the sea after being liberated. I am sure none of them will become turtle egg poachers in the future.
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Rick’s piece also describes the turtle ranger program he helped us launch:
Everyone recognized that the real heroes of this event were the rangers who work for Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 to focus on restoring and protecting the endangered ecosystems along the Pacific slope of Central America.
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These rangers patrol unprotected beaches to protect turtle nests from poaching….All were very enthusiastic about what they were doing. They report that the number of egg poachers is slowly declining and that the incentive program is having a positive effect.
Read the whole piece here:
Exporting “Rangering”: Working To Help Nicaraguans Safeguard Rare Hawksbill Turtles