PROGRAM
		2001 Leatherback  Season - Part 6
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First Hawksbill and Japanese Fame

The species of sea turtle most commonly encountered in Tortuguero these days is of course the leatherback (so far we have logged 123 encounters) but we do occasionally come across nesting green turtles (24 encounters logged to date). These are early arrivals as the main green turtle nesting season does not start until late June or even early July. An even rarer visitor to the Tortuguero beach is the hawksbill turtle. The most recent analyses indicate that hawksbill nesting has decreased, probably as a result of hawksbill fishing throughout many parts of the Caribbean. Very sparse hawksbill nesting occurs from late April to October or November but only the very fortunate turtle taggers and volunteers get to see one during their Tortuguero visit.

The RA team has so far logged 123 leatherback encounters.

The first lucky ones this year were Viviana, Nick and return participant Cathy. They encountered a hawksbill covering its nest, just south of Tortuguero village. They tagged the hawksbill, which showed no signs of having been previously tagged, and they stayed with the turtle until it had returned to the water. Afterwards they erased the whole track in order to ensure that no one could find the nest. The hawksbills are currently classified as critically endangered and every nest that we can protect counts towards the species survival.

In terms of leatherback turtles we continue to stay busy. The RAs and the participants have marked 42 leatherback nests to date, nests that need to be checked every day to determine if they have been poached or washed over by the tide. So far we have lost a couple of nests but preliminary results indicate that poaching is once again lower than during the previous year. This is in part due to the efforts by the park rangers and in part due to what appears to be a decrease in the local demand for eggs. I believe that the longer people work in ecotourism, as most Tortuguero villagers do, the more they prize the turtles as a tourist attraction and the less likely they are to consume turtle meat and eggs.

The first leatherback hatchlings of the year are emerging on Tortuguero beach.

We have again increased the number of night patrols, in particular along the Jalova beach section. Joint patrols are now carried out by park rangers and RAs. The first patrol was very successful and the team encountered as many as three leatherbacks and one green turtle. The tagging teams have continued to see jaguar tracks in the sand but there has been no more nightly encounters with the large cats in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday we had a visit by representatives of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), an organization that has provided funds for the leatherback program. Although they were only in Tortuguero for a night they were lucky enough to see two leatherback turtles and both within half a mile of the field station! The IFAW staff also had time to talk to park rangers and local tour guides about their views on sea turtle conservation and what they see as priorities with regards to protection.

Cooperation with other organizations also include more aerial surveys of leatherback nesting activity conducted together with Lighthawk but this time all the way from Monkey Point, Nicaragua to Isla Bastimentos in Panamá. There were few leatherback nests in Nicaragua but more in both Costa Rica and Panamá. The aerial surveys have been well timed as the spatial distribution of leatherback nests along the coast has relevance both for the proposed oil drilling and for plans to create a large wildlife refuge to the south of Tortuguero National Park.

This week has seen the return to two turtle enthusiasts to Tortuguero. Mac, the keenest participant of all times is back again this year, both for part of the leatherback and for part of the green turtle program. He was lucky on his first night and got to see a leatherback very close to the field station.

Dana Biasatti, a student at the Southern Methodist University is also back. She collects turtle bones for her study to reconstruct migration routes from the chemical composition of the turtle skeleton. Today she did her first collection trip, helped by her field assistant and one of the park rangers. They collected several bones from turtles killed by jaguars as well as from a stranded green turtle.

The international visitors to the field station are making Tortuguero famous worldwide. The other day we were sent a newsletter in Japanese written by a reporter that visited Tortuguero a couple of months ago. I have to admit I do not understand a word of it but there are several photos of local children, people working at the village recycling center and at the local butterfly farm. Turtles and conservation is a good mix and will no doubt continue to bring fame to Tortuguero and its inhabitants, carapaced or not.

Hasta Pronto,

Sebastian Troëng
Research Coordinator