The turtle season 2018 has begun at Playa Tortuga, Ojochal

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 01:46:16 +0000

© Camille Baile

Very early the morning of the 22nd of June, after returning from a crocodile monitoring, members of the Reserva Playa Tortuga observed turtle tracks on the beach and found a nest with 91 eggs. This is the first official nest of the 2018 season.

Playa Tortuga is a nesting beach for sea turtles Lora or English Olive Ridley, although there are reports of green turtles and leatherback turtles that nest here as well.

The nesting season normally extends from June to January, having its peak in the month of October. During these months the beach is patrolled intensively every night in a period of 8 hours, covering on average a distance of 12 km, from 18:00 to 5:00 every day, in order to observe and mark the females that arrive at Playa Tortuga.

© Graciela Pulido

Reserva Playa Tortuga accepts volunteers and interns, who can participate in this project as well as others (monitoring of crocodiles, birds, mammals, etc.) and you can contact us at rptojochal@gmail.com

5 Things You Should Know About Olive Ridley Sea Turtles

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 00:46:25 +0000

Here at Reserva Playa Tortuga, we do a lot of research on the Olive Ridley turtles that nest on our beach. Here are 5 things we think you should know about Olive Ridley sea turtles.

1. Olive ridleys, also known as lepidochelys olivacea, are classified by the IUCN as “Threatened” despite being one of the most abundant species of sea turtles. If numbers keep declining, the olive ridleys will likely be bumped to “Endangered.”

2. One of the major threats facing these sea turtles is the human impact on their habitats. Playa Tortuga is an olive ridley nesting beach. What this means is that adult females will arrive on our beach to nest and lay eggs. These nests, however, can be endangered or even destroyed, by the use of motorcycles on the beach, or by poachers that want to steal the eggs. During nesting season, the staff and volunteers at Reserva Playa Tortuga do daily and nightly beach patrols in order to help protect the nesting turtles and their nests.

3. There are also natural, environmental factors that affect the Playa Tortuga habitat, such as sand erosion. The Balso River empties into the ocean here and the ever-changing path of the river, combined with ocean tidal factors, is constantly creating shifts in the beach landscape. If a nest is endangered by these factors, staff here at Reserva Playa Tortuga will relocate it to our protected beach hatchery.

Measuring a nesting olive ridley sea turtle on Playa Tortuga

4. Adult olive ridley females generally range in size from 60 cm to 72 cm. Here at RPT, the length of the largest turtle we have recorded is 75 cm.

5. Each season at Playa Tortuga, there are approximately 4,000 baby olive ridley turtles that hatch and crawl out into the ocean. The mortality rate for baby turtles is high, however. Generally, only 1 out of every 1,000 baby turtles will survive to adulthood. This makes the conservation efforts even more vitally important.

Baby olive ridley turtles

See our Research Articles for more in-depth information on the studies conducted at Reserva Playa Tortuga.

Want to make a difference? Come volunteer at Reserva Playa Tortuga. Not only will you be helping the conservation and research efforts for the olive ridley sea turtles, you’ll be experiencing the “pura vida” lifestyle of beautiful Costa Rica.

Olive Ridley Sea Turtles | Reserva Playa Tortuga

The turtle season 2018 has begun at Playa Tortuga, Ojochal

5 Things You Should Know About Olive Ridley Sea Turtles