Costa Rica's Tourist Board fights disinformation about turtles

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Two months ago I received a chain email decrying the wholesale taking of newly-laid turtle eggs at Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, in Costa Rica. The photos attached showed piles of eggs on the sands and hordes of local men, women, and children scooping out eggs from the nests.

The email text described the legal gathering of eggs a “theft” and an “international shame.”

A normal person, rightly, would act with revulsion.

However, I quickly countered the email as being entirely misleading. I should know. I've written at length about the Conservation & Use of Ridley Sea Turtle Eggs Project, at Ostional, for the California Academy of Sciences magazine, Pacific Discovery, as well as other prestigious magazines. I also profile the project in my Moon Costa Rica guidebook.

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) has countered the damaging email with its own press release and publicity campaign. The ICT claims, more accurately, that "the images actually represent a model of sustainable development in the Ostional community."

Here's the scenario...

Ostional is one of barely two dozen beaches in the world where the endangered olive Ridley's nest. Uniquely among marine turtle species, which more normally nest individually, Ridleys congregate en masse at sea and then swarm the beaches like battalions in a D-Day invasion. As many as 200,000 Ridleys may pile ashore during rainy season arribadas (arrivals), with as many as 20,000 at a time digging their nests at Ostional during the course of three or four nights. Many, if not most, of the nests dug on the first and second night get dug up again on subsequent nights by later arrivals. The result is destroyed nests, broken eggs, and a high incidence of bacteria in the sands due to rotting eggs and hatchling carcasses.

Scientists figured that by removing eggs laid during the first two nights, the rate of successful hatching and hatchling survival might increase. Thus was born an experiment unique to Ostional. Elsewhere throughout Costa Rica, taking marine turtle eggs is illegal. Yet poaching of nests nationwide has been a constant problem due to a traditional demand for eggs for baking and as (supposedly) aphrodisiacal drinks in bars and brothels.

An exception to the law was granted and the Ostional community was legally permitted to harvest a specific amount of eggs for commercial purposes under the supervision of the Ostional Internal Development Association (ADIO in Spanish). Only eggs stamped with the ADIO trademark may legally be sold (packed in sealed bags displaying the association’s logo and sold with corresponding invoices) and purchased in Costa Rica.

The result?

Bacteria has been reduced. More eggs are maturing to hatching. More hatchlings are being born. And the population of Ridleys has increased to the point where they are now coming ashore at more and more beaches along Costa Rica's coast.

Just as importantly, the ADIO eggs have undercut the market for illegal eggs, leading to a reduction in illicit poaching at other beaches.

As ICT claims: "The legal use and allotment of resources plan, far from being an embarrassment, is the pride of the country and has been applauded and recognized by national and international scientists."

Win-win!

For further information about travel in Costa Rica, buy Moon Costa Rica

Copyright © Christopher P. Baker