Costa Rica Coast

Hannah Richardson- Smith and I were selected to participate in a unique five-week volunteer program in Costa Rica, working alongside 50 other like-minded individuals from around the world. Together we worked under the direction of an organisation called International Student Volunteers (ISV) and this was made possible by local support, especially that of the Lorne Lion’s Club.
During our first week in Costa Rica, we were housed within local host families where we attended school- learned Spanish, and were immersed within a new culture. We then began our volunteer project, which ran in conjunction with local community leaders and educated us of conservation issues. A key tool in the project’s sustainability was protecting endangered turtle species.
Costa Rica is considered one of the most important nesting grounds for sea turtles in the world. More than fifty different nesting beaches can be found along the Carribean and Pacific coasts, where five out of the world’s seven sea turtle species come ashore to lay their eggs. One of these beaches is Ostional- where we were based for volunteering. The community of Ostional has been active in sea turtle conservation for the past forty years and is one of very few nesting beaches where turtles nest year round. Three species which travel to use this important nesting site include the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, Pacific Green Sea Turtle and the Leatherback Sea Turtle (which were what we worked with).
The importance of our volunteer work was due to the arribada phenomenon (which occurs once per month, where thousands of Olive Ridley turtles come ashore to nest) and has lead to Leatherback turtles becoming critically endangered due to their nests being destroyed by the Olive Ridley turtles. Until 2004, no comprehensive research on the Leatherback turtle nesting activity had been carried out. Similarly, despite the high rates of poaching reported, no specific measures were implemented to protect this species.
Hannah and I participated in nightly patrols led by experienced biologists and local conservationists. These consisted of walking roughly 22kms a night, alongside hatchery shifts- where we monitored and then released baby Leatherback turtles. During a nocturnal beach patrol we measured the carapace (shell) length of nesting adult turtles, helped with data collection for future research (record time, zone, activity etc. of the turtles), tagged turtle flippers, relocated nests into the hatchery, excavated and examined nests which had been disrupted by local dogs, poachers and external unnatural causes, measured and weighed recently-born hatchlings, released and monitored the hatchlings on their journey to the ocean and built new nests to transplant eggs in attempt to receive higher rates of Leatherback success.
Moreover, during our time in Ostional, Hannah and I alongside other volunteers achieved to tag 18 Olive Ridley turtles, counted a total of 1332 turtle eggs- laid by 16 Olive Ridley turtles, measured 2 Leatherback turtles and counted their 57 eggs, witnessed a 70% Green Sea Turtle nest excavation success, witnessed 25% Leatherback hatchling success, released 13 hatchlings, witnessed 3 Green Sea turtles hatch from natural nests, participated in 40 hours of patrol per week each, participated in collecting 202 kgs of plastic from the beach and also 36 hours of log clean up.
Ostional is located seven hours from the capital city of San Jose’, where Hannah and I were collected and transported via truck out to the beach in what was almost forty degree weather. We stayed with separate host families and were forced to communicate with them only through Spanish. The typical community homes were small and basic, but comfortable, consisting of two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and bathroom, where we experienced no running hot water for the duration of our project. Through staying with these families we were generating local income, which represented an important alternative activity to the extractive use of sea turtles and our enthusiasm and motivation encouraged the protection of these essential and overlooked creatures within the local community. Our diet consisted of the traditional gallo pinto for breakfast, lunch and dinner (rice and black beans), which we happily demolished at the time, however are thoroughly enjoying the variation of foods back in Lorne.
We were both proud representatives of Lorne within our project, and are extremely thankful and grateful to the Lorne Lion’s club for their support in helping us on this venture. Hannah and I feel we have learnt a lot from this experience and appreciate the support we received from everyone in Lorne who allowed us experienced this opportunity.
Although at points in this trip we experienced corruption within the local community we were living in, Hannah and I used these opportunities to learn, and allowed us to appreciate our community back home. It was inspiring.