AUGUST UPDATE

Hey everyone!

Here is an update of what is new with COTORCO for the month of August:

Local involvement

This month started with the local employee beach project managers Deisy, Yeicol and Enoc starting their training. Jorge our project coordinator, who has worked on the project since the very start (our fourth year now!), took them all out together to teach about the data collection for the hatchery and beach patrols. There is a lot of new things to learn so four nights total were put  aside for these intense training sessions. Everyone is up to pace with the data collection, they are a really incredible team!

Also part of our amazing team are Kenneth (12 years old) and Mauricio (15 years old), our Junior Hatchery Managers (JHM). Kenneth was already a JHM last year and decided to do it again since he loved it so much! These bright, young boys patrol with the project coordinator and project  managers, with the authority of doing the same work as them. This includes data collection, measuring female adult sea turtles, and moving and/or protecting nests. 

All of our patrollers (minus Kenneth as he was in school those days) attended a sea turtle workshop held by LAST at Hacienda Rio Oro to learn more about sea turtles, their history and importance. Everyone came away inspired and with even more motivation to protect our visiting sea turtles! 

Volunteers

At the start of the month we welcomed a World Challenge group from the AES, Essex, England- 14 students, 2 teachers and 1 group leader. As well as preparing the hatchery and painting some wonderful signs, they also organized and carried out a lovely activity with the local children as an  ´open hatchery season´ party. There was a variety of games including pin the head on the sea turtle, skipping competitions, count the beans, volleyball, and more. Popcorn and fresh starfruit were given as treats to the participants. It was a really lovely way to start the hatchery season, watching the next generation of conservation project managers enjoy the morning in the tropical paradise of Carate!

To help on patrols we have also had the help of 9 other volunteers this month: Elena (Nacional), Grosse & family, Julian & Catherine, Sorlena, Alba & Rosalba (Internationals). Thank you guys, you all did an amazing job! Not only do our volunteers accompany our project managers on night  patrols, but also on morning beach surveys after training, and other activities depending on the necessity. Although Elena has now left Carate, she continues to help us from the distance on some important projects which will be revealed once finished over the next few months!

The hatchery

We have now had the Carate Community Sea Turtle Hatchery open for four years, each year  becoming bigger and more beautiful. Since it is right on the beach, we need to carry out constant maintenance. Throughout the month of July we had over 150 people donate their time into getting the hatchery ready for the opening on 1^st August- a full list of all participants can be found  in the hatchery´s casita if you would like to have a look.

The big maintenance job for this season was refitting the bamboo wall. This wall is extremely important as it means when we have very  high tides, the nests in the hatchery are protected from the power of the waves. We have seen that beach erosion has been extreme on some parts of Carate beach this year and so it was of great need to have this wall improved as soon as possible. I think you will all agree it looks very nice! A big thank you to Derek from Rio Oro for donating the bamboo. Also, a huge thank you to Luna and La Leona lodges for helping to bring the bamboo to Carate from the farm. Finally, a HUGE thank you to the locals and volunteers who came to help put the bamboo wall in place- intense days of digging sand and placing the bamboo came with a lot of sweat and cut hands but we DID IT! THANKS EVERYONE!

To raise funds for the project, we continue to run the ´adopt a nest´ scheme. We sold a total of 53 nests in August, with 100% going straight into the sea turtle kitty. As an incentive to get involved, we continue to offer FREE nest adoptions to all local community members. They must go out on a night patrol to help collect a nest in order to qualify. There has already been a great turn out and we expect returners and more locals to join us this month!

Government efforts

For the first time ever in history, we had a meeting with MINAE/SINAC, POLICE, ADI CORCOVADO and COTORCO present. This was great news for the sea turtles as the decision was made to formally join forces and plan and undertake patrols together to keep nest predation to a minimum. Although we have had MINAE/SINAC and POLICE on patrols before, the idea is that it will be more organized to give the greatest impact to protect the whole strip of sea turtle nesting beaches from Piro right up to La Leona. Watch this space!

Business as usual

On the office side of things it has been a very busy month too! We are very pleased to announce that we are now affiliated with Paypal, accepting donations direct through our website. This is wonderful news for us as it means that people can donate from all over the world. The Paypal link appears on our home page and also under the ´get involved´ section. Spread the word!

As of August, COTORCO now appears on some volunteer websites. We hope with this extra presence on the internet, we will be receiving more volunteers to help on the patrols. The locals are core to the project but we have found that they enjoy the company of volunteers, learning new things about different cultures, and also a wonderful opportunity to brush up on their English with the international participants. With more people presence, we will also be able to strengthen patrol efforts on neighboring La Leona Beach where we unfortunately are seeing various nest poaching and predation activities.

Sea Turtle Conservation in practice

Without a doubt, this was our most successful August to date in terms of conservation on Carate Beach. We noted a total of just 2 nests taken by poachers. We aim for 100% protection on Carate Beach and indeed we are getting close to that. This was also our most successful August in terms of nest protection from dogs- not a single nest on Carate Beach destroyed by dogs this August.

To be clear, we only move nests to the hatchery if they are in danger spots (in front of the lagoon in danger of being pulled out when it opens into the sea, shallow nests on the lower part of the beach, or in the red alert poacher areas).  The rest of the nests we leave IN SITU. If we can afford to the leave the nests where the mother originally laid them then we do- the less manipulation the better. These nests we protect by using hand made bamboo meshes- sustainable and efficient! The spaces between the bamboo strips are big enough for the baby turtles to get out of but small enough to stop the dogs feasting on our shelled friends. Genius!

September= Babies

We expect the first of our nests in the hatchery to be released from 14^th September on wards. Please spread the word to everyone you know that there is still time to adopt nests in our hatchery- these make great gifts for loved ones to show that you care about nature.

A huge thank you to Byron and Centennial Equipment for their very generous donations this year. Without you, our project simply would not have become a reality this year and we would not have been able to actively help as many of the sea turtle nests as we have. The Carate community and sea turtles are eternally grateful for your help and we look forward to seeing you in Carate soon!

We hope you enjoyed this news bulletin and look forward to bringing you more sea turtle news at the end of this month!

Paz y tortugas, sending love from Carate….