By Dave Casey

One of the great attractions of the Playa Junquillal area that gets completely overlooked by many visitors and part-time residents is sea turtle nesting and the protection of the eggs. Most people come to Costa Rica's northwest Pacific Coast in search of sun, surf, sportfishing and the like. But the magnificent beaches and water that provide those entertainments for humans also attract five endangered sea turtle species to lay their eggs.

Sea Turtle Protection in Tierra Pacifica

Harvesting turtle eggs from beach nests is a centuries-old tradition throughout Central and South America. Although the practice now is illegal in Costa Rica, poaching continues because of a lack of law enforcement resources.

Two organizations have worked hard in Playa Junquillal and nearby communities for the past few years to nearly eliminate turtle egg poaching here. The Pacific Leatherback Conservation Project began operating in Playa Junquillal in 2005 and has protected hundreds of nests, enabling more than 16,000 of the seat turtle babies to hatch and return to the sea. Led by Argentine biologist Gabriel Francia, teams of local PLCP volunteers and visiting students conduct nightly patrols along the 5.6 kilometers of greater Playa Junquillal. This includes the central Junquillal beach as well as three nearby stretches - Playa Honda, Playa Estero and Playa Blanca (just north of Hotel Iquanazul).

The patrollers locate the pregnant sea turtle tracks left in the sand as they make their way onto the beach to dig their nests and lay their eggs. Sometimes the PLCP volunteers wait until the mother turtles return to the ocean and then rake away the tracks that would identify the location of the nests. But most of the time they move the eggs - usually between 80 and 120 per nest - to a protected area where poachers cannot get at them. This is because sea turtle species return to almost the exact nesting location year after year, so the poachers often know where to find them.

The PLC effort is focused on the three sea sea turtle varieties that nest in the Playa Junquillal area: the mammoth Leatherback and the smaller Olive Ridley turtle and the Eastern Pacific Black turtle.

Coupled with the effort to protect nests and collect research data is a community awareness program. This involves educational presentations at local schools, recruitment of local students and adults as volunteers, and sponsorship of events to promote turtle protection.

The biggest such event - the annual Turtle Festival at Playa Junquillal each February - has grown into a broader community get-together that encourages cooperation among locals, foreign residents, part-time residents and tourists on a variety of issues. Some visitors who have experienced the Turtle Festival, volunteered for the nest patrols or witnessed the mass release of hatchlings into the sea make a point of returning to Playa Junquillal for these events.

The success of the PLCP in Playa Junaquillal has Francia considering expansion southward. "It is also our ambition to make this message reach other communities such as Venado, Lagarto and Marbella, where threats still exist for the sea turtle nesting grounds," Francia stated in a recent newsletter published by the organization.

The other local effort for sea turtle protection is based in Punta Pargos, just north of Playa Junquillal. The Punta Pargos Sea Turtle Protection Project was established by Marc and Rachel Ward in 2003. The Oregon couple had witnessed turtle nest poaching first-hand as visitors to the Nicoya Penninsula of Costa Rica, and in 2001 they founded Sea Turtles Forever, an Oregon based non-profit conservation organization. The non-profit now runs the Pargos project in Costa Rica and the Pacific North West Leatherback Awareness Program in Oregon.

The Pargos project uses volunteers and visitors to patrol the beaches and protect turtle nests from north of Playa Blanco to Avellanas. It also engages in extensive community outreach through local schools and other organizations.

Marc Ward estimates that nests protected by the Pargos project have produced bout 8,000 sea turtle babies in the last three years. In addition to Leatherback, Olive Ridley and Eastern Pacific Black turtles, the Pargos project has protected eggs of Hawksbill and Eastern Pacific Green turtles found on those beaches. For more information got to: http://seaturtlesforever.com/