Olive-Ridley Sea Turtles

I am now at Camaronal, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, working with sea turtles. Every night we patrol the beaches from about 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM protecting the turtles and their eggs from poachers. Sometimes we see the turtles come out of the ocean, they then drag themselves about thirty yards up the beach until they are well above the high tide mark. They use their back flippers to dig a hole between two and three feet deep. They then lay between forty and one hundred and twenty eggs. The eggs are about the size shape and coloring of ping pong balls, they are also kind of slimy.

If we see the turtle laying eggs, we dig right behind her while she is doing it and collect the eggs. If we don’t see the actual turtle, we have to follow the trail they make when they drag their bodies up the beach. At the end of the trail we poke around with a stick looking for loose instead of compacted sand. We then dig down with our hands looking for the eggs.

Once we have found the eggs we dig them up, put them in a bag, and go to a new spot on the beach away from the drag trails and bury the eggs. Poachers use the drag trails to find the eggs so it protects them to move them.

Poachers are people who take turtle eggs to eat and sell. Stray dogs, raccoons, birds, crabs and other animals also like to eat turtle eggs.

We also count the eggs and measure the turtles. I like to watch the turtles go back to the sea. They lower their heads and crash through the waves.

The pictures have a red tinge because the turtles don’t like the white light of camera flashes and flashlights.