Interesting facts about sea turtles and ASTOP, Costa Rica

ASTOP office

We had a good summer week in Parismina, Costa Rica, working as volunteers at ASTOP (Asociacion Salvemos las Tortugas de Parismina, or Save the Turtles of Parismina) to help sea turtles in the natural reserve.

Here are some interesting facts about sea turtles and ASTOP (with reference to the ASTOP website and volunteer briefing/notes).


1) Every year, Leatherback, Green and Hawksbill turtles come to Barra de Parismina, Costa Rica, to lay their eggs on the Parismina beach from March to October. Poachers steal the turtles and their eggs to sell on the black market for profit. For instance, green turtle with their meat sold at the price of US$10/kg in the black market, used to be captured, tied up and carried around the village.  This is illegal but local were used to that until a group of young people from the local community decided to do something.

2) In 2001, a group of local teenagers who could not bear the fact that sea turtles and their eggs caught and collected illegally by poachers, started something to make their village a difference.  These youngsters started to parol at night while the leatherback, green and hawksbill turtles come to Barre de Parismina Costa Rica to lay eggs on the Parismina beach in the hatching season. They started the Association to protect sea turtles, developed volunteer plus homestay program and also arrange educational visit program of tertiary students from the US (charging three times more than volunteers) which not only finance the project, but also improve economy of the village as a whole, plus providing activities for village children.   Volunteers from all over the world came to help with the night watch, guard the hatching ground and learn about sea turtles preservation, while stimulate commercial activities of local, for instance buying food in the stores and paying for homestay or camping in the village.  ASTOP effort gradually gained support from their fellow villagers.

The night guard reporting cabin

3) Leatherback is the largest of all species of marine turtles. They can exceed 540kg and their eggs are most desirable, with the general belief that they have aphrodisiac power.

4) Green turtles are hunted for the meat and their eggs. The beaches between Parismina and Tortuguero in Costa Rica are believed to be the most important Atlantic nesting ground of these turtles.

5) Hawksbill are often hunted for their shells, which are the source of 'tortoiseshell' once prized for making accessories and eyeglass frames.  Luckily, it is now forbidden.

6) Turtles are reptiles, cold blooded and need to breath out of water for oxygen.  During hatching season, they will stay in the water surrounding the hatching beach and wait till dark before heading the beach to lay eggs.  Hence, some poachers will tie the turtles' legs when their appear on the beach with a long rope and floating ball and wait till the next day in looking for sea turtles in the ocean.

7) Sea turtles always have tears in their eyes. In fact their eyes are always secreting mucus to regulate salt water level. If baby turtles unable to develop such function, they will die in sea water.

8) Female turtles do not nest in consecutive years. They typically skip one or seven years before returning.  So, it's not easy for them!

Sea turtle footprints on the beach

9) It is believed that green turtles return to the very same beach where they were born.

10) If female sea turtles come ashore but cannot find a satisfactory spot to lay her eggs, she will crawl back into the ocean and try to come ashore at a later time.

11) Sea turtles will leave their eggs on the beach and only return for another nesting. Some might nest up to ten time per season.

12) The sex of hatching depends on the temperature around their nests. The proportion of male hatching exceed that of females when the temperature is between 23.C to 29.C and reverse when the temperature is between 29.C and 37.C

The relocated hatching area with volunteers on duty

13) Only one in every 1,000 to one in every 10,000 baby sea turtles will reach reproduction age. Reproduction age is between 15 and 50 years depending on the species.

14) Sea turtle babies will wait for their batch of eggs of the same nesting to climb out of the sand. Staying together gives the stronger ones better chance to survive.

Baby sea tutles nest are arm-length deep, it's not easy for the sea turtles to climb out.  They need to encounter this first challenge in life before they have a better chance to survive in the even more challenging ocean.

15) These babies will be dehydrate and they need to drink a lot of water when they successfully crawl towards the ocean. Some might dry up along their way.

16) These babies have all kinds of natural enemies on the beach, including birds, crabs and ants. Not only poachers, dogs would be digging their eggs and human on the beach might be stepping over their nest, making the sand compact and hence, they suffocate before even climbing out. Or even people might be stepping on them, when they crawl out, without knowing - they are really tiny when newborn.

17) Despite all the threats, in fact, poachers are not the main threat for turtles, but global warming and commercial fishing. Beach with temperature too high might kill the eggs, whereas fishing nets might accidentally caught sea turtle.  Unable to breath above the sea level, without fresh air, they will die.

18) To slow down global warming, we might help by consuming more local products to keep carbon emission lower.

It's definitely a good lesson to learn about these beautiful giant creatures.

National Geographic Live: Witnessing Birth of Sea Turtles

Never in my life have I seen a living sea turtle, needless to say witnessing a mother sea turtle giving birth, except in Animal Planet or National Geographic Channel, but then, we saw it! And for 96 times on our first night as volunteer of Asociación Salvemos Las Tortugas de Parismina (ASTOP), 
http://www.parisminaturtles.org/  with the task to protect the endangered sea turtles by patrolling with local turtle guide at midnight until 4am!


Set in Northern Carribean, a small town with only around 500 inhabitants and surrounded by jungle rivers on one side and Carribean sea on the other side, Parismina is only accessible by boat and is the nesting ground of three kinds of sea turtles, including green turtle, leatherback and hawksbill sea turtle. Well, July is one of the peak month for nesting of green turtles and we are on time.


No wonder it's said to be the wettest place in Costa Rica, the village roads are covered with dark sand and water. And it rains everyday.




We took a bus in San Jose at the Caribe terminal to Siquirres, which took us almost 2.5 hours, had a short walk for 5 minutes before getting on another bus to Cano Blanca . A good 2.5 hours along banana plantations, we finally reached the pier. Then we waited for a small boat for 18. In 15 minutes, we arrived Parismina, finally.


Being a volunteer cost us US$75 each (US$35 for registration and US$10 daily for participation with a minimum of 5 days, but we asked for 4). Then we have a choice of home staying (which cost US$27 per person per night) with villagers or camping. The camp site managed by Alex, was quite nice, costing around US$5 per night, per person, and there are cabins too. Since no one staying in the campsite and it was raining all the time, we finally settled down in the cabin. Alex got us bed linen, fan, stove, gas, cutlery, dishes, plates, cup, unchained the fridge and we got the long abandoned kitchen and our room nicely setup.


At the ASTOP office, we got a short briefing, a set of notes and was told to patrol at 1200-0400 that night. Two local girls walked us around the small village and we had our own time thereafter.


The village got a lot of coconut but looks like everything were brought from outside. Food are extremely expensive! A pack of half kilo frozen chicken cost almost HK$80! We finally settled for some eggs. one onion, some tomatoes, some really artificial sausage and some rice.


After having dinner, we took a nap and headed for our first night of patrol.


It was raining heavily. We arrived at the patrol station almost 15 minutes ahead. There were already 2 people there, Miguel and Jennifer. Then 2 more guys came along.


We followed Miguel along the way. We had a really long walk along the dark soft beach, they prefer walking without light or turned on their red light torch once in a while.


I was holding Adley's hand tight as I was not used to the darkness, walking in haste and occasionally kicked on some woods along the beach.


It was almost 1.5 hour south before we met Jennifer and her partner again. They found a sea turtle! The trace was like tires on the sand, clear parallel lines of flaps moving upwards towards the shore. They was discussing in Spanish and we didn't get anything. We stood there waiting under the rain while dozing off standing and getting chilled.


Then Miguel asked us to move forward, and there she started! We all stand behind the mother turtle and Jennifer was kneeling on the sand, crawling down to catch her eggs in the arm length deep hole, with gloves and plastic bag ready.


This green sea turtle made a nest in the sand by her flips and when she thinks its deep enough, she started to lay eggs. 

Because we cannot use flashlight, we cannot take photos, but the following youtube was quite the same as what we saw.

Mother turtles might crawl up the beach and return to the ocean right away if she thinks the environment is not most appropriate, like having dogs around, human with strong perfume or mosquito repellents. Her hearing is excellent but shortsighted, hence, we are advised to wear dark clothes, refrain from using perfume nor mosquito repellents and no photographs nor video. But green turtles have an instinct to return to their own birth place to nest their eggs. Amazing!


The eggs comes one by one in varies pace. We were standing right next to her, at her back, seeing the eggs coming out. And there were 96 of them!


Jennifer and her partner took the eggs to the ASTOP guarded nesting ground, to have the eggs on watch, so as to avoid dogs and poachers. While we stayed with Miguel waiting and overseeing the mother turtle returning to the ocean before we go. Since green turtles are considered local delicacy but illegal for hunting. to make sure she is safe, we stayed to make sure she went back to the ocean.


Then our guide grasped me to somewhere nearby, while Adley watching over the mother turtle. There was another bigger one! But she walked up and returned to the water again.


We returned to the patrol base and on our way, discovered another turtle trace.


Mother turtle was already gone but our guide managed to find another pile of eggs. There were 85 of them.


Our guide carefully put them in a plastic bag with gloves and we took them to the guarded hatching ground, by burning deep into the sand.


That was a fruitful night and we returned all wet for another cold water shower and good sleep.