Costa Rica’s Olive Ridley Sea Turtles
A very long time ago, the first olive ridley sea turtles arrived in the oceans of the world. Today, these ancient turtles are in danger, a fact that is really hard to believe because, after all, they have been with us—before there was an us— more than one hundred million years.
How long is a hundred million years? Here is a way to put some perspective on it. Remember the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex? It lived in the North America continent about 65,000,000 years ago and, as night follows day, it ate ancient turtles when they came ashore to lay their eggs.
Even so, these beings have flourished, despite being eaten by just about everything imaginable for tens of millions of generations. Dinosaurs, large and small, birds, mammals, and fish have eaten—and do eat their eggs, gobble up tasty hatchlings and, of course, their flesh.
Marine turtles even survived the greatest extinction the earth has suffered, a calamity that destroyed all of the mighty dinosaurs—and yet the turtles flourished.
These oldest of all reptiles spread across the face of the planet, swimming all of the tropical and temperate seas. They thrived in incredible numbers from the east coast of the Americas to the Arabian Sea and from India to the Pacific coast of the New World. There were tens upon tens of millions, maybe more.
When I was growing up everybody loved watching “I Love Lucy.” When the first episode of that TV show aired, the seas were still filled with olive ridley turtles. On Mexico’s Pacific coast alone, there were 10,000,000 olive ridley nests that year—1951— and every nest contained about 100 eggs per clutch. That is a billion eggs on a single coast in just one small country. A billion eggs every year. And, of course, these sea turtles were found virtually everywhere there were warm or temperate waters. The bounty was limitless.
So many eggs, so easily gathered, so much money to be made. During the incredible arribadas, or nestings, of olive ridleys, huge pack trains of horses and mules carried out hundreds of millions of eggs each nesting season. And, so it was that within about 20 years or so, there was but a single nest in one year on a beach where there had been several hundred thousand nests when we laughed at Lucy the first time. Alas, this was being repeated around the world.
Meanwhile, several countries around the world, established sea turtle fisheries. The female turtles, in particular, were easily caught because they gathered in huge numbers close to shore before coming to the age old beaches to lay.
In only a few short years a single generation of humans nearly accomplished what had seemed impossible. From limitless to endangered while most of us watched television.
Fortunately, some countries belatedly realized the extent of depredation and began taking steps to conserve and protect sea turtles. Tiny Costa Rica has helped lead the way, creating reserves and working with dedicated conservationists and local residents to not only conserve what is left but to rebuild stocks.
Today, Ostional Beach, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, almost certainly has world’s largest arribadas of olive ridley sea turtles. Every month, often when the moon is in its last quarter, female turtles gather close to shore for several days and suddenly come to the beach in large groups, over the course of several days and nights. The greatest arribadas are often in October, November, and December and the biggest arribada in recent years was 500,000 females coming ashore in 1995. If you are interested in Costa Rica ecotourism, this is a must-see.
Costa Rica has come to recognize that these extraordinary creatures are worth more than the value of their meat and eggs. And Mexico? Remember that pathetic single nest on a beach once filled with turtles? Well, the government finally decided to protect it. Slowly, it recovered to 50,000 nests in 1988—and then up to several hundred thousand nests in 2000.
From a billion eggs to a single nest and then from a single nest to a million turtles. Unbelievable. It is clear that if we just give these animals a chance, they can be on this planet another 100,000,000 years.
No related posts.