Hatchery, Children, Paint and Turtles

Its amazing how much has happened here in just 3 days. I feel like we have barely stopped moving.

Santi and Jon Carlos helping with the fence

Wednesday, we got out in the hatchery again in the afternoon. The plan was to get the last 9 post in the ground and see if you could close the hatchery up. When we got out there we had lots of Tico help, but we were also 3 posts short. Lotti and Erik couldn't make it back to the beach until the following Wednesday to help us cut the posts. So we were told to wait until then or find driftwood on the beach.  Having worked so hard cleaning the almond wood posts and making sure they were the same heights none of us could fathom just putting some random drift wood in and we sure weren't willing to wait a week to finish the hatchery. I mean there are turtles to protect! So we asked around and I was able to pay a local to come out and help Victor cut the last 3 posts. While the last 3 posts were being debarked, everyone else was helping secure the net. As the sun was setting we were able to get all the posts in place and wrap all 30 meters of net around the hatchery, but it still wasn't ready to put eggs in it. We didn’t have a door plus the net was too low so dogs could easily get in and finally there was no grid system in place yet. So left with hopes of finishing and placing the first eggs in on Thursday night.

A little English homework

While saying goodnight to the local kids they turned towards us and instead of saying "buenas noches" they said "goodnight" and "I will see you tomorrow" This of course gives me an idea. I let them know that there are lots of volunteers here that speak English and if they need help on their English homework we would be glad to help. I said this thinking maybe this could be a weekly or bi-weekly thing when the hatchery is finished. Little did I know they had English homework due the next day they had been struggling with. So 10 minutes later we have 5 kids in out kitchen with notebooks ready for Spanish tutoring. Matt and I split the kids and each helped with a couple of assignments and 45 minutes later we were finally able to eat dinner and head out for patrol.

Wednesday night there were no turtles which in a way made me feel better about not finishing the hatchery, but it still sucks patrolling and not having a turtle or even a turtle track.

Paint scrapping is hard work

Thursday morning the PRETOMA truck came and us all up to take us the big town of San Francisco de Coyote, where there is not one but two grocery stores, where we were scheduled to help paint the school. When we got there we were handed paint scratchers and metal sponges to clean and chip away the paint on a 50 foot long wall. We were met there by 4 other PRETOMA personal 2 of which were research assistants for Playa Caletas. One of them was from Portugal and had worked with turtles in Cape Verde and the other was from California. When I asked which part he said "Davis, its just west of Sacramento." I replied that I knew where Davis was I had graduated from UC Davis. As we got to talking we realized not only did we partake in the same graduation ceremony, but also had taken classes together. Small world and it keeps getting smaller.

After a few hours of paint scraping and lunch a local restaurant, we are taken back to Costa De Oro and were back to work on the hatchery. Victor's job make a door. Matt's job paint the sector numbers on the beach. My job with the help of the locals is to finish wrapping the second net around the posts to make it so dogs can't jump in. Well with all the local help it turns into me supervising while the men nail the net up. Afterwards, Kirsty, Laura (English volunteers) and I make the grid system. We calculate we have enough room for a pathway town the middle and about 115 nests. Once again, we work until sunset, but decide it was worth it because the hatchery was finally ready to put eggs in!

We ate dinner and were all anxious to begin patrol. When we got outside we realized the storm was a brewing and we all turned back around and changed into clothes better fitting for the rain. As we walked it is raining so hard its nearly impossible to see two feet in front of you, but we did end up finding a track in the last sector of the beach. As Matt and I looked at the nest bed (which is nearly washed away) we started guessing where the eggs might be. After a bunch of pointing around and a bruised ego (I usually quite good at finding eggs in the first couple tries) we determine d there were no eggs and walked back to the house.

Since turtles like the rain we decided to head back out at 4:00AM to see if we could find some eggs to put in the hatchery. So Matt walked to the south and Victor and I to the north. As we walked we noticed a lot of people on the beach; they too know its good turtle weather. Victor and I walked quicker in hopes to beat them to any possible eggs. Well when we got to the track from the night before I see a guy, his two dogs and a machete pointing around. Victor and I decided to play up the research so he started measuring the track and I took the data book up to the nest bed and started taking notices. We asked  if  there were eggs and he started digging and pulling out eggs. It felt like someone had kicked me. Not only did we have this nest before, this would have been our first nest for the hatchery and I get to witness it getting poached. I couldn't believe I couldn't find it. I just watched silently as he was tossing the eggs out of the hole and into the sand next to him…

He had pulled out maybe 50 eggs before he looked at me and said well aren't you going to put them in YOUR bag. I was stunned, he was giving me the eggs. I thanked him and introduced myself and told him these are the first eggs for the new hatchery!  We walked away with 100 eggs as I replayed the night before in my head and vowed to never make that mistake again. I can't believe how lucky I am.

We radio ahead to the house and woke the other girls up so they could be part of just a momentous occasion. When we got to the hatchery everyone was waiting and cameras were out (one plus to getting the eggs during the morning was we could really document). Everyone looked at me and said "Its your nest, you get to do the honors!"  

Almond Posts and Nesting Turtles

Carrying a bucket of sand like the
Costa Ricas.

The last couple days have been crazy. I had been hoping to put the first nest in the hatchery on Monday night, but unfortunately it's still not finished.

Monday afternoon with the help of a lot of locals we were able to finally fill the hole completely with sand. When it was full it was so surreal that it was actually over. I thought that the next portion would be quick maybe and hour or two and that we could have the hatchery up and running Tuesday night. But once again I had my hopes set  just a little too high.

Tuesday, we went out to the hatchery and measured it and mapped out the posts on the computer.  I thought it would be easy. We would just dig the holes for the posts and place them in. Then dig a trench and place the net in. I figured 2 hours tops. Well I was wrong!

Erik, Andre, and other locals
showing off hatchery posts.

The first problem we ran into was Victor found a beautiful almond tree that had been cut down. So he and Erik went and cut 8 foot posts, but all the posts had bark on them and bark houses bugs which we don’t want in the hatchery. So Victor and a few locals spent Tuesday afternoon debarking 22 post with machetes and axes. While some of the local kids, volunteers and I went looking for small pieces of drift wood to use a stakes to hold the grid in place.

Hatchery Tuesday evening- Posts and some fencing in

By the time the sunset we had 13 posts debarked and in the ground and the first part of the fence placed on one side of the hatchery. Today we will hopefully finish the hatchery and be able to put the first nest in before I switch back to San Miguel on Friday.

As for turtles we didn't have anything last night, but I think it might have been my fault.  I think we should have patrolled later; the tide was still pretty high when we went out so the turtles may have come later. The big challenge on this beach is going to be figuring out what time to patrol since we only have 3-4 hours of patrol on a beach that is almost 5km compared to the 5-6 hours on 2.5Km San Miguel beach.

Me digging the first nest of the year in Costa De Oro.

Monday night we had on false crawl to the north and one to the south of the station house, but no nesting turtles. Sunday night we had two nesting turtles and we saw them both. The first was huge and she was just reaching the water when we reached her. She was beautiful and laid 137 eggs. The second was just beginning to dig her hole when we approached. She was super close to the house, so I ran back to the house and got the Victor and Kristy who had patrolled to the south so they could see her too. The turtle laid 101 eggs and we moved both nests near to the house so we could keep an eye on them.

Sunset on Costa De Oro looking towards San Miguel
You can see all the way to Samara.

If you are interested in seeing egg, nesting turtle and baby release count for each beach check the turtle tracker on the side of the page. I will try to keep it as up to date as possible.

Uh-oh this dog is pretty cute and very sweet.
Might have already found a PRETOMA dog for Costa De Oro...

The local kids showed up early Monday morning before school to bring me pictures they had drawn for me.  Most of the pictures were of turtles or the hatchery.

Playing with Fish Guts Again

For anyone who doesn't know I worked for Hubbs Seaworld Research Institute for a couple months after graduation and before returning to Costa Rica. While I was there I was a fish tech for the white sea bass fish hatchery. I learned a ton, but I also had to touch a lot of dead fish. The experience there made me totally prepared for what I did for PRETOMA yesterday.

Friday afternoon we received our first volunteers, Laura and Kristy, to Costa De Oro. So I took the girls on a short patrol to the north and the boys went to the south. We returned to the house 2 hours later without seeing a turtle, but very exhausted after such long day working in the hatchery.  So we all went to bed by 10pm knowing  we would have to get up at 430AM to help measure fish.

Looking across the river at the fishing village.

At 4:30 AM Matt, Victor and I woke up, ate some cereal, drank some cold coffee and were out the door. We had to walk about 3km south to the large estuary, but when we got on the beach we realized the tide was still coming in and it would be nearly impossible to continue without getting hit by waves. We decided to cut back onto the road continue from there. Little did we know the road was going to be as beautiful as it was. It was full of wildlife and flowers. When we finally got back on the beach and to the estuary it was just before 6AM. Right then we got a phone call from Erik, the sustainable fisheries coordinator  from PRETOMA we were going to meet up with, saying he was going to be a little late since the boat got stuck in some rocks.

Fishing boat

Around 7:30 we see the boat coming into the mouth of the estuary navigating through the large surf.  The boat comes and picks us up and minutes later we are across the river where a group of locals are waiting to help clean the fish before they are packaged for market. However our job is to help Erik take measurements of 3 different types of fish Red Snapper, Yellow-tailed Red Snapper and a Jackfish.

They caught an eel too.

Erik pulls out a table and scale and he measures the fish's length and weight. Then comes the fun part. He removes the gonads and determines sex, maturity and then weighs the gonads. Afterwards, all the organs are ripped out of the fish and it is weighed again. All of this is recorded for about 50 fish. While doing this Erik explains that PRETOMA is helping the local fishermen obtain a certificate to become the first sustainable fishery operation in Central America.  With this certificate the local fishermen can gain higher dollar for their fish. Erik also explains all the fishing is done by hook and line, not net, so its much safer for turtles. After 2 hours of working with the fishermen they give us some of the by-catch and we are taken home in the PRETOMA truck.

At 1 AM we went out on patrol, Victor, Laura and I went to the south and about 500m from the house we see a turtle track. We collect 96 eggs and continue on our patrol without seeing another nest. When we get back to the house we place the eggs out in front of the house because the hatchery isn't ready yet. We head back to bed feeling a sense of accomplishment finding the first official nest at Costa De Oro.

Photo credits to Victor Maisano since my camera is broken again!

The Big Move

Front Porch of the new place

My new bedroom.
Yes it is a full sized bed!

Tuesday afternoon, Maddie and I flipped a coin to see who would be the first to go to the new house in Costa De Oro. After it landing on heads, which meant Maddie was staying, I began writing a list of everything I had to do in the next 24 hours to get ready to switch beaches. Luckily Maddie and I have the "master bedroom" at each location so I could take only what I really needed.

Beautiful watercolor drawing done by
one of the most amazing volunteers.
She gave it to me as a going away gift.

Wednesday afternoon all of the volunteers , Matt, Victor and I loaded into the white PRETOMA truck to head over to Costa De Oro to do a little more hatchery filling.  After a couple hours and a lot of help from the locals we made another slight dent. This feels like a never ending job! My goal is to put the first nest in the new hatchery on Monday night. Wish me luck!!!

Hatchery coming along slowly but surely.

At sunset everyone left and Matt, Victor and I had the house to ourselves. We made some basic pasta and went to bed early because we were walking  the beach at 4:00 AM to get a feel for the new location. During the patrol we saw one false crawl (turtle walks onshore and returns to the ocean without a nest attempt) and saw a few people walking the beach.  Overall the morning walk was beautiful as we watched the full moon disappear as the sun rose.

Moving Sand

Loading up a wheelbarrow with locals

On Sunday we finally arranged a ride over to Costa De Oro to fill the hatchery. When we got to the house there were people from the San Jose Red Cross renting the place and seemed pretty put off that we were going to be working in front of their house. They even came over to us and let us know that they paid for privacy and that we were invading them.  Maddie and I apologized and let them know that we would only be working at the hatchery and would not walk anywhere near the house. They agreed probably because they knew we were using public land and had the permits to be there.

As we began filling the hatchery with fresh sand we started attracting attention from the locals and people came with their own shovels and wheelbarrows to help us. The sense of community astounded me. Before long Victor, the caretaker of the new house, showed up to talk with Maddie and I about his role at the house. He was incredibly friendly and apologized for the renters attitude towards us and told us if we needed anything at all he would help us.

Ana, one of our German volunteers, helping a local
child unload the wheelbarrow.

As the buckets and wheelbarrows loaded with sand were being added to the swimming pool size hole we made the week before, a young girl tapped me on the arm and said "Muchacha podamos ayudar?" This young girl and her 3 siblings wanted to help too. I was amazed! I grabbed 4 more buckets and took them too the beach and filled them half way with sand and looked at the kids. They weren't reaching for them they were just staring. I asked if I had made them too heavy and they replied that they wanted them filled all the way. These kids were maybe 10 years old and were carrying more sand than most of us. The kids kept trucking along carrying full buckets of sand and were filling them their selves before we had a chance to. Before long I look over and the kids have found themselves a wheelbarrow and were moving pretty heavy loads of sand. The kids could not have come at a better time, everyone was getting tired but nobody wanted to be put to shame by children either.  Overall between the help from the locals and the fact we didn't have to walk over 3 Km to get to work  we were able to fill almost 1/3 of the hatchery with fresh sand.

 I am happy to report that I have now seen turtle 4 nights in a row. We have been getting about 3 nesting turtles each night and everyone has now seen at least 2 nesting turtles.  So we now have 20 nests in our hatchery. 

Costa De Oro

Eggs in a hole
 breakfast made a the station house

The first week went really well. We already have 7 nests in the hatchery and almost every volunteer has seen a turtle nesting. I think this year is going to be a good one! We also have an incredible amount of volunteers 19 today!!!!

The boys testing out a
Gillian's Island type raft.

PRETOMA has decided to open a new project this year on the beach (Costa De Oro) south of Playa San Miguel, but there is still a lot of work to be done to get the project ready.  So Tuesday, the two new research assistants, Matt and Victor, and I crossed the estuary at the south side of Playa San Miguel to get to Costa De Oro. The idea was we would measure and mark a tree every 100 meters so we could make sector posts. However, when we got there we realized that the pilot project from last year had some sectors left up, but were measured oddly. So we had to make a new game plan.  We decide the best option was to just walk the beach and see what we had to work with and we would mark the beach later. While we were over there we saw the beautiful house we would be living in. It is a 3 bedroom house that sleeps 9 and has a real kitchen with an oven!!!  The is also an outdoor BBQ and a pool. 

Just about finished digging out the hatchery.

On Friday we had a group of 9 come in from an organization called CIRENAS. They want to learn how to build a hatchery and what goes into a turtle project. So we all loaded into the cars and drove down to Costa De Oro to start building the hatchery. To build a brand new hatchery you must remove all the sand/dirt until the hole is about 50cm deep. Then you have to place the posts and mesh fence around and then refill the hole with sifted sand. It is hard work and the hatchery is large; we could easily fit 200 nests in it. After 3 days of hard work and lots of help from locals and volunteers we finally finished digging the hole.  Today we are taking a break while we wait and find out if we can use a bulldozer or something to help us refill the hatchery with fresh sand.

As for turtles this week we haven't had one in 4 days but I think its cause the tides are very drastic and are too fast for turtles. Plus, its the beginning of the season. I think it should pick up again this week or at least I hope so!

And the Adventure Begins Again...

My mom and I at the TG hotel.

Now that I have finally made it to Playa San Miguel, Costa Rica, I can catch everyone up on past week. First off I want to thank everyone who read the article written about me in the North County Times and came to check out my blog. If you have any question please don't hesitate to email me!

Wow it sure was an adventure getting to Playa San Miguel!!! After closed freeways, cancelled and delayed flights, my mom , her friend Susie, and I finally made it to Costa Rica, only 8 hours later than expected. Since we arrived so late we didn't have time to drive all the way out to the Nicoya Peninsula until Wednesday morning. So we found a boutique hotel Terrazas de Golf for the night. The owners had converted their house on a golf course into a bed and breakfast and had the most hospitable service!

That night after running a few errands, we got back at the hotel and where greeted with fresh kas juice and an eggplant h'orderves. We played a couple games of Bananagrams on the balcony before calling it a night.

The next morning we were treated with a stunning view of the golf course and an amazing breakfast with fresh fruit, eggs, and gallo pinto. After breakfast we hit the road and drove towards Sarchi. Sarchi is the wood working capitol of Costa Rica and where my parents bought our  dinning room table at 15 years ago. The craftsmanship was a beautiful as ever, but the prices sure increased due to it now being a major tour bus stop. Nonetheless we picked up some fun little trinkets for family and friends before heading 2 hours southwest to the Puntarenas ferry port.

Tin Church outside of Sarchi.

After missing the ferry, driving around the gulf and crossing Amistad bridge, we continued our journey on dirt, winding road in the dark. Which I am sure my mom would not recommend! It took a lot longer than I expected to get to be beach and at one point I thought I had lead us in the completely wrong direction. 

Luckily we when arrived at my friend's (Drew) new hotel, Laguna Mar, he was waiting for us with umbrella drinks. After we enjoyed the drinks went up to bed and had a fantastic nights sleep. The next day, I showed my mom and Susie all of my favorite places around the beach and they even got to patrol with me that night. Unfortunately, we didn't have a turtle, but they found the patrol very relaxing.

Laguna Mar Pool

Friday morning we woke up early and had another fantastic breakfast at Laguna Mar before I had to start my real work.  My mom and Susie brought me to the station house and they were off to travel Costa Rica.

When I got to the house Lotti and Sandra, the Co- directors of the turtle projects, came to update me on the changes from last year and made sure I was ready to begin the new season.

Saturday night Maddie (my co- coordinator) and I did our first official patrol with our new research assistant, 3 volunteers and Wilson, our local.

About an hour into our patrol we came across and Olive Ridley just beginning to dig her nest. We all gathered around to teach the specifics of a nesting turtle and what data we take from each nesting encounter.

After about 30 minutes our turtle had been measured, tagged and all 72 of her eggs were collected. We returned to the hatchery to place the nest into the first spot and in about 45 days we should be seeing our first hatchlings!!!