sea turtle captain

Greetings from Manzanillo!!!

Here's a quick summary of our findings after our first week of intensive night patrols to protect sea turtles nesting on the beaches of Playa Manzanillo de Cobano, from the quebrada manzanillo to the south side of the Bongo River.

Rainsong's volunteers began the patrols Dec. 20, Sunday night. The patrols have been able to rescue 14 sea turtle nests in just 6 nights [dec 20-25] !!! All were the olive ridley. The patrols erase the turtles' tracks to and from the nesting site, so that the poachers cannot find the nests. 4 nests were partially ravaged by raccoons, and 2 other nests were found already pillaged by nestrobbers [humans].

Obviously there are plenty of sea turtles that call manzanillo home, so we are very committed to continuing our efforts !

Walter Cuendis Lopez, rainsong's patrol captain, has proven to be a true sea turtle lover !!! 'Tortuga ninja' ['ninja turtle'] is his local nickname, since he has been a sea turtle advocate for years at manzanillo ! He is tireless, diligent, and his perseverance inspires the volunteers during the all-night-long patrols.
He has made this project his own for his love for the sea turtles, and Rainsong could not manage without Walter's dedication to the protection patrols.
walter is knowledgeable regarding tides and crossing rivers safely, and he carefully guides the rainsong volunteers throughout the night. Rainsong staff has agreed that walter deserves compensation for his commitment, and we are now paying him a salary for his contribution as supervisor and captain of the patrols.

Walter has solicited the help of many locals living on the beachfront in Manzanillo, to help us keep human predators away from the sea turtles' nests.
We are just beginning this project, and we already have a wonderful group of locals cooperating with our efforts. This is very encouraging !

Rainsong volunteer ella mae walker was assisting Walter for the first week of patrols. She came to rainsong from a leatherback and black turtle conservation project in ostional, and she has contributed much knowledge and practical advice. After working for a month in Ostional, where two separate sea turtle protection projects have been running for multiple years, she has thoroughly enjoyed starting a new project where the surrounding towns are less educated and open to new ideas. The payoff has been unbelievable and the short time spent in Manzanillo is the highlight of her time spent in Costa Rica thus far.

Christmas night, rainsong patrol volunteer, jeannie deibel, was thrilled to experience the nesting ritual of an olive ridley sea turtle,
for the first time in her life ! she is very excited !

Saturday, dec 26, mary lynn perry, justin taylor, and patrol captain walter cuendis were at the playa carmen fiestas entrance, carrying out community outreach to educate the public about the sea turtles' plight.
The general public seems unaware of the serious situation sea turtles are facing, locally and globally. Many people were responsive and interested.
also, we recruited several other local boys from manzanillo to help walter in the night patrols.

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES PLANNED AT PLAYA MANZANILLO SITE :

-thursday, dec 31, 2009, 3pm, restaurant atardecer -- Rainsong staff will be holding a meeting with the manzanillo community group that is cooperating with our sea turtle protection project, then we are all going up the beach, to the north side of quebrada 'chapeton', to begin intensive clearing off of the driftwood blocking the nesting sites for the turtles.
LEATHERBACK nesting season is upon us, and we intend to continue laboring to clear the driftwood from above the high tide line, to allow the leatherbacks room for nesting.
the ridleys that our patrols have observed so far, are laying their eggs below the high tide line, since the soft powdery sand optimal for nesting found above the high tide line is covered by literally tons of driftwood.
From our online investigations, we've found that it is unlikely that many of the eggs laid below the high tide line will actually hatch, the change of temperature that occurs when the nest is covered by the sea water will affect the eggs' viability drastically, and reduce the hatch % to a very low percentage.
Anyone who can send us links to more data or studies on this .........PLEASE DO !!!

NEW YEARS' DAY , jan 1, 2010:
restaurant atardecer - while enjoying the festivities of the annual new years' day party at the restaurant atardecer, rainsong staff and members of the manzanilla conservation group will also be continuing community outreach by talking with the locals about the sea turtles.
hopefully we can attract more people to help us with clearing the driftwood away so the leatherbacks will be able to nest.
we will be collecting signatures for a petition to solicit stricter enforcement of existing laws that protect sea turtles, and the legislation of better protection laws in the near future.
rainsong staff will also spend time with the kids there, spreading 'fun learning ' and giving prizes and gifts to the kids.
we have a wonderful collection of educational materials [donated by rainsong volunteers] regarding many conservation topics, and especially sea turtles.
we're all sure to have fun !
and begin the new year with hope and concern for the sea turtles at playa manzanillo !

JANUARY
we are very anxious to attend a meeting planned between rainsong staff, refuge representatives, and pretoma officials, possibly even MINAET officials, at the manzanilla site.
the exact date in january has yet to be set by the participants.
there are many subjects to be discussed, and several serious challenges to be resolved.
the priority for rainsong is to acquire orientation from pretoma in the handling of the removal /rescue of the turtles' eggs, to be then safely transferred and guarded in a hatchery area in the refuge.
LEATHERBACK nesting season begins in january, according to many documents we have read.
so we want to be prepared to rescue all nests found during the rainsong patrols and tranfer the eggs to the secured hatchery area.
we hope the strategy meeting can take place on a sunday, so that rainsong's friends, biologists carlos porras and natalia corrales can join us, bringing their expertise and experience with sea turtle conservation to the table.

WE HAVE HIGH HOPES FOR A SAFER YEAR AHEAD FOR SEA TURTLES AT PLAYA MANZANILLO !!!

happy turtles,

End sale of sea turtle eggs

Costa Rica is home to two of the Eastern Pacific's largest olive ridley sea turtle nesting sites at Nancite Beach and Ostional Beach. Ostional Beach has a government monitored program to patrol the beach and also allow the community to harvest a certain percentage of the sea turtle eggs to be sold at market. However, many people from other areas take advantage of this arrangement by selling turtle eggs from other beaches and claim that they have harvested them at Ostional. The result is that the overall population of olive ridleys had declined. The population of olive ridleys at Nancite has dropped over 90% in the past 30 years. The population at Ostional has remained stable, but there is little or no data available on other beaches to gauge the overall population decline in the area.

Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary is partnering with PRETOMA Sea Turtle Restoration Program and private landowners to create a program for monitoring and protection key nesting sites for both leatherback turtles and olive ridleys on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The leatherback is listed as critically endangered and is the top priority for this sea turtle protection program.

Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary is seeking government and private support to end the sale of sea turtle eggs in Costa Rica to increase the viability of turtle populations on all beaches in the country, particularly those where there is little or no monitoring and enforcement.

Another threat to the leatherback and olive ridley populations in this area is the agricultural development occurring at the Caletas-Ario National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.pretoma.org/sea-turtle-wildlife-refuge-bulldozed-by-farming-company/) carried out by Agropecuaria Caletas S.A.

Detailed information on the olive ridley and leatherbacks can be found at:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/oliveridley.htm
http://www.fws.gov/northflorida/seaturtles/turtle%20factsheets/olive-ridley-sea-turtle.htm
http://www.eurocbc.org/seaturtletrackingconservationproject_08mar2006page1886.html