CONSERVATION IN ACTION

This year we are making greats strides in our sea turtle conservation program. Our community turtle rangers continue to monitor three key beaches near the La Flor Wildlife Refuge, providing around-the-clock protection to the country's most important Green Sea Turtle nesting site.

Through support from Billion Baby Turtles, we have also launched a second women's sea turtle nursery where women place nests from vulnerable beaches in hatcheries and protect them throughout the incubation period. A critically endangered Leatherback Sea Turtle nest will hatch in a few days thanks to these women!

Partnerships with the private sector enable us to protect even more beaches, including important Hawskbill and Green Sea Turtle nesting sites. At Rancho Santana in Tola, Rivas, the hotel supports full time rangers who have already protected over 70 nests at Playa Escondida. Billion Baby Turtles has made it possible for Paso Pacifico rangers to provide training and technical support. 

We are excited to share some insights from our turtle program next month at the 34th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation in New Orleans, LA.  

IN THE NEWS

Early this month, researchers from the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative’s (ICAPO) and PRETOMA made an exciting discovery. They encountered an adult Hawskbill Turtle within a wetland in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. The interesting thing about this turtle is that she had nested five times along Nicaragua's coast in 2012. We know this because our friends at Fauna and Flora International protected her nests back then and tagged her with a metal tag for follow-up.

READ the NEWS here, and learn how through this latest finding, the value of international collaboration is affirmed.

The impetus for ICAPO's expedition to this wetland came from the turtle "Alexa" which was tagged with a satellite transmitter by Paso Pacifico in 2012. This turtle name after ICAPO co-founder Alex Gaos, traveled from its nesting beach in southwestern Nicaragua down to Costa Rica. She spent months feeding within the mangrove and lagoons located in the Gulf of Nicoya. This wetland is interesting because it is located near to the busy port city of Puntarenas, and its importance for sea turtle conservation has been somewhat overlooked. Now, partners in Costa Rica are working to strengthen its protection.

Our partnership with the research and conservation network Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (ICAPO) has enabled us to learn more about the Hawksbill Sea Turtle. The information being generated and shared by the more the fifty ICAPO members is helping us to prioritize mangrove protection and to continue efforts to protect solitary nesting Hawksbill Sea Turtles.

This month, ICAPO co-founder Alex Gaos and biologists from other partner organizations visited us in Nicaragua. Together we set out on a boat to visit key feeding areas along the coast and to measure Hawksbill turtles in the water. We identified several importance reef sites and discussed ways to strengthen Hawskbill protection.

We are grateful to be a part of this network and to learn from inspiring biologists from across the Eastern Pacific Ocean.