Costa Rican Sea Turtles

The leatherback sea turtle population in the Pacific, once the stronghold of the species, has decreased by over 90% since 1980. Help scientists investigate this decline and look for ways to save this, and other, sea turtle species.

Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province, Las Baulas National Marine Park, and Playa Cabuyal are home to critical nesting grounds for not only endangered leatherback sea turtles but also endangered green turtles and olive ridley turtles. On the sandy shorelines, these species haul themselves out of the ocean, dig holes with their flippers, and lay clutches of soft-shelled eggs. After a few months, fragile hatchlings will emerge and make their way to the ocean.

The world is a dangerous place for these tiny turtles and their parents. They’re threatened by climate change, boat traffic, fishing gear, coastal development, and humans hunting them for their meat and eggs. To truly understand why these ancient species have declined so rapidly and what we can do to stop this decline, researchers need to know everything about them: their behavior, physiology, genetics, population biology, and migration patterns. Subsequently, it is important to determine whether the current conservation and management efforts are working and how climate change is impacting these populations.

To build this knowledge base, you’ll walk the beach at night when turtles are active, getting up close to these massive animals to identify them and take measurements that help determine how they have changed since they were last seen. In addition, you will help collect skin samples for genetic analysis and attach transmitters that will track their local and long-distance movements. You’ll also help relocate eggs from nests in dangerous spots, like where waves might wash them away, to a hatchery. The researchers on this expedition have studied sea turtles for over three decades, and you'll help them expand the longest-running database that exists on Pacific marine turtles. This work is critical: with sea turtle populations declining at an alarming rate, each turtle is precious.