Costa Rica Sea Turtle Adventure

On May 25, 2021, we took 27 amazing people down to a remote coastal research site in Costa Rica to work with the biology team at Latin American Sea Turtles doing conservation work for Leatherback Sea Turtles. This was a week-long, educational and rewarding experience that we will never forget!

DATES: MAY 25 – JUNE 1st, 2021

Project Details

Recap

Night patrol of beaches looking for Leatherback eggs to bring back to the hatchery so they are not poached
Taking vitals and measurements of newborn baby Leatherbacks and escorting them safely back to the ocean
Beach clean-ups along the coastline
Sewing damaged Leatherback nests
Analyzing Leatherback nests for signs of disease or infection
Working in the Leatherback hatchery to ensure the eggs are kept at proper temperatures
There will be three different educational programs as well on Turtle Conservation & Threats, Turtle Ecology, and Turtle Biology

Investment

The total cost of this trip is $1,250. This includes all transportation in Costa Rica, accommodations, and food. LAST is providing freshly made Costa Rican cuisine, completely vegetarian, throughout the trip. This does not include your airfare – you are responsible for that on your own.

Patrol Don't Poach Fundraiser

Missed the trip but still want to make a difference for sea turtles in Costa Rica? Support our Patrol Don’t Poach fundraiser in partnership with Latin American Sea Turtles.

About the fundraiser:

All seven species of sea turtles are endangered. We are losing them at alarming rates due to rising ocean temperatures, coastal erosion, plastic pollution, fishing line casualties, and poaching.

It is difficult to quickly turn around the climate issues in the short term, but we can tackle the poaching issue. Doing so would save millions of sea turtles each year and go a long way in restoring their population.

At Latin American Sea Turtles, a 501-c3 non-profit, we work to protect Leatherbacks, Green Sea Turtles, Hawskbill, and Loggerheads. We are excited to launch a fundraising initiative that we are positive will make a big time difference – PATROL, DON’T POACH.

Most people think of poachers as evil, mean-spirited people. However, that is far from the truth. They are often local community members struggling to make a living, feed their family, and survive. For most, if they had an alternative means of making a living, they would take it. They don’t wake up wanting to hurt animals or their local ecosystem.

Our plan: pay the locals at our Caribbean Costa Rican location to patrol the beaches and protect the turtles rather than poach them. We are offering locals a guaranteed wage for every patrol they do with our team if they commit to stop poaching completely.

We are offering $16 per patrol and looking to get up to 2 locals per day leading patrols alongside our biology team. That means we need roughly $1,000 per month for the rest of the hatching season (June through October) – or $5,000 total to make this happen.

That means if you donate $16, you are paying for a 4-hour patrol from a local community member that can save hundreds of turtle eggs and several adult turtles per shift.