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Marc, Jacob, Elliot, Geronimo & Rachel (taking photo)
2003-2004
Volunteer beach patrollers.
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Jake, Elliot and Marc 2004-2005
Volunteer beach patrollers.
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2005/2006
Patrol leaders: Tyler, Nedda, Geronimo, Marc, Rachel Elliot, Joey.
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2003/2004
BEACH DATA
Total Daily Patrols : 73
Beaches patrolled: +/-
250
Total encountered nests: 70
Total poached nests: 40
Total secured nests: 25
Total crawls
w/ no nest: 5
Total nests saved: 38%
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2004/2005 BEACH DATA
Total Days Patroled:
110
Number of beaches patrolled: +/-350
Total nests encountered: 65
Total poached nests: 20
Total
secured nests: 25
Total crawls w/no nest: 20
Total nests saved: 55%
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2005/2006 Beach
Statistics
Total Daily Patrols : 210 Total
beaches patrolled : 760
Total encountered nests : 87
Total poached nests: 15
Total secured nests :
72
Total nests saved: 82%
22 Olive Ridely : Lepidochelys Olivacea
27 Pacific Black : Chelonia Mydas
sp.
17 Pacific Green : Chelonia Mydas
3 Leatherback : Dermochelys Coreacea
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2003/2004 Nesting Season- The Begining We owe a big thanx to the gnarly energetic teens that
got up at 2:30-3:30 every morning to beat the poachers to the marine turtle nests bfore they were taken. Elliot Rossano, Jake
Vanausdall, and Geranimo Martinez have been essential to our patrol efforts. We have had several other volunteers but these
three local teens were amazing. El as we call him, is an inspirational patroller and just extremely mature for his age. When
we were so tired that we could not get up at times he would be there to roust us. Many times his motorcycle was our alarm
clock. My wife Rachel would wake me when she could hear him comming down the road a mile away. He would sometimes work until
midnight as a security guard for a private home owner and still show up for turtle patrol at 3:30 a.m. El will secure allot
of nests and data for STF and also hatch out many Sea Turtles.
Jake Vanausdall was
a big part of the patrol this season. He was with us from the very begining and his support was invaluable. Even when he did
not have any shoes or a flashlight he would run barefoot along side our bicycle patrols on the dirt/gravel roads at 3:30 in
the morning just to be able to secure a marine turtle nest with the team. He has lived in Los Pargos for several years
and even attended the elementary school here, he is a part of the community and a top soccer player on the local team.
Geronimo Martinez was a huge asset to have on the STF team and volunteered many hours to
the patrol. He added some life to our patrols that seemed to trudge along at 4:00am. He will secure many sea turtle nests
with his ability to work in the harsh conditions on Punta Pargos. Geronimo was rasied on Punta Pargos and was camping in the
jungle with his parents for extended periods at a very young age (5). He is specially equiped to operate under the many environmental
and cultural conditions we face every night on patrol. He has an ability to learn marine turtle science very fast and has
an ever questioning mind. Always wanting to learn more about the biology of our subjects, and the environment surrounding
them.
Together Marc, Rachel, Jacob, Elliot and Geronimo set an example for the entire
community. It is only a begining of our planned development, but it is a great one at that. This is only the start of some
much needed social change and a chance for the nesting Marine Turtles of Punta Pargos to survive into the future. We
are upgrading our tactics and operations and climbing the mountain we face in turning the illegal harvest of marine turtle
eggs into sustaining the species for future generations, and rebuilding the remnants of a once thriving but now decimated
marine turtle population on Punta Pargos. Every year we gain one more piece of the puzzle that is made up of cultural,environmental,sociological
and industrial factors that threaten the survival of these turtles, and move toward insuring the integrity of this important
nesting cohort.
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2004/2005 - November - March
We had several new volunteers and with great enthusiasm Elliot
Rosano returned for his second year. Joining us was Elliot’s brother Jake and what a team they made working together.
We were much stronger this season and ran more patrols than we have in the prior nesting seasons . We gathered new support
from the community of Los Pargos and managed to secure the same number of nests from illegal harvest as last season even though
overall there were fewer nesting marine turtles than during our 03/04 season. We only had 4 Leatherback nests compared
to the 20 from last season. Playa Grande had only 48 nests - down from 1500 last nesting season.
We
saw a decrease in the number of poached nests partially due to the anti-poacher presence we have created on the beach and
partially due to the fewer number of nests layed. We managed to accomplish the most important goal: Creating awareness and
co-operation within the community. We have started the necessary change in attitude toward the sea turtles and the local people
have accepted our effort as a good idea. The value in tourist dollars is important for many Costa Ricans, tourists love sea
turtles and so they are much more valuable to the populace alive than dead. The Pargos Community has become very pro-sea turtle,
even though a small number of hard core poachers from the area and a larger number from outside the area still try for illegal
harvesting.
This season we confirmed that there is a very rare nesting population of Eastern
Pacific Green turtles nesting on Punta Pargos, we will start a population study immediately. We have a morph species of the
Green --- the Black --- nesting. The idea that the two species are separate has only recently becoming accepted by some scientists.
The Black sea turtle is only known to nest in three places on earth. The Galapagos Islands, Mexico and the N.W. coast of Costa
Rica. The present scientific consensus is that they should all be classified as " Greens/Blacks", or Chelonia Mydas.
Overall the 2005-2006 nesting season was a great success and a big step forward. Having continued
our efforts for a third year made many of the locals take a second look at what we are doing and understand our goals
better. We have gained some much needed support and acceptance from within the community, and the country. Although we have
few resources we are making a difference, one baby-step at a time. We are embarking on an excelent Chelonia Mydas study.
Thank you to everyone who helped this season!
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The 2005/06 season has been a great success !
Together we have managed
to shepherd 72 nests out of harms way, and hatched out approximately 5000 marine turtle hatchlings. Recovery of
the cohort is underway, and the project is becoming more advanced and more efficient.
Together with volunteers from all different walks of life and seven different countries we managed to establish some control
over the Punta Pargos nesting. We put a serious dent in the poaching and gained valuable data from five species of marine
turtle. With few resources to work with we accomplished a foothold in the area, and have been able to test our tactics in
the field long enough to somewhat guage thier effectiveness.
We have almost enough raw
data to complete our preliminary population model and have gathered more valuable information regarding the nesting habits
of Marine Turtle species on Punta Pargos.
Together - with donations from our supporters
and sales of STF merchandise we have created three jobs in Marine Turtle Conservation for local Costa Ricans. This showed
the community that Marine Turtles are a valuable asset alive and will bring in many more dollars in research jobs and tourist
revenue than as a food supply.
Together we have coordinated with the local faculty of the Punta
Pargos area to create a conservation oriented seminar for all the schools in the nesting area. This brings us closer to the
local communities and gives everyone a new awareness of the need to protect the endangered Sea Turtles.
Together with help of many local and international volunteers we removed truckloads of Marine Plastics Debris from the Punta
Pargos nesting beaches. This Marine Plastics Debris floats in every year and is often ingested by our turtles, which
results in death if the plastic gets lodged in the thorax or intestines of the marine Turtle. The turtles often mistake marine
plastics debris for jellyfish, the Leatherbacks main food source, and an alternate food source for other species.
Hawksbills like sponges and eel grass, Greens prefer algae.
Elliot,
Gerronimo and Joey were with us again this season giving our team lots of experiance. Nedda Byblow, one of our other Canadian volunteers. Nedda and Tyler from Canada joined
our team for 3 months this season missing very few patrols and giving us much needed support! Even though we patrol at night
and it is 100 degrees on the beach during the day our team still volunteered for the arduous task of plastics recovery,
on top of her demanding patrol schedule.
STF has always relied on volunteers people like Tyler, Nedda, to help us keep the patrol operating economically, and
effiecently through many months of nightly patrols.
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