© 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
Reserva Playa Tortuga is a non-profit biological research and education center formed in 2009 by community members (“citizen scientists”) and Costa Rican scientists.