For the second trimester of my LEEP, I will be doing an internship with the Leatherback Trust located in Playa Grande (20 minutes from my school).  My mentor is named Tera Dornfeld,who is originally from Wisconcin and has been working as a Leatherback Trust field biologist for the past 6 years.  Here is a map of the location of the Leatheack Trust.

Here is information about the Leatherback Trust....

The Leatherback Trust is a non-profit foundation established by James R. Spotila, Ph.D. to save the leatherback turtle and other sea turtles from extinction. The Leatherback Trust scientists were instrumental in founding a new national park, Parque Marino Las Baulas, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The park protects the most important leatherback nesting beaches in the Pacific Ocean. Our scientists have trained park rangers and guides, worked with local school children and advised the local community on living in harmony with the leatherbacks. Before the Park was established poachers took 100% of nests. Now almost all nests are protected and a hatchery protects nests that would be washed away by high tides or eaten by predators. Now thousands of hatchlings crawl to the ocean every season where five years ago only a few survived. 

On Wednesday, January 23rd, I met Tera for the first time.  She is the person I will be working with this trimester. We went out to a nest site and as we began to excavate it, we discovered that it was actually two different nest sights that were layered upon each other.  First we tried to located the older eggs, but only found the newer, unhatched eggs.  So they had to stop in fear of disrupting the undeveloped eggs.  We then  moved on to an Olive Ridley turtle nest where we found one baby turtle that was unable to make it’s way out of the nest and out to the sea.   We put the hatchling into a bucket with a little sand and water so that it can be released later.  The plan is to release them at night not only because they could die from the heat of the day,  but also because of predators that might want to eat them as they walk slowly to the water.  It is also safer for them to go at night time when they are less visible.

Here are some pictures from the dig sites and a couple of videos of the turtle moving around in the bucket that I carried back in to the center.  The best part was showing the baby turtle to people on the beach and explaining to them about turtles and turtle conservation.

Leatherback Hatchery Visit

On January 30th, which was my brother William’s 7^th birthday, my family and I (without Marissa, who was camping with her 4th grade class) went to the turtle hatchery in Playa Grande. Our  whole family was invited to help the scientists at the Leatherback Trust dig up the last nest of the year there in the hatchery. Eggs are moved here to the hatchery when a turtle lays her eggs in a poor location, like too close to the waterline.  When there are no eggs in the nest, the hatchery is used for experiments. The hatchery is located just above the dry sand on the beach.

 

The experiment currently going on now, is to see if water affects the temperature of the nests. They are studying this because of global warming, which may make the nest too hot or may not produce enough males to have a sustainable population of sea turtles. When the nest is cooler, more males hatch, however if it’s too cold then the eggs will not hatch either. When the nest is warmer, more females hatch, but when it is too hot the embryo will cook and not hatch.

 

 

When the scientist’s begin digging up this Olive Ridley sea turtle nest, they dig slowly and carefully. As he dug further and further down into the sand, he would push his hand into the sand to look for the egg chamber and if there were any baby turtles near the surface. He dug a ways down and found one.

 

 

(That's me in the red shirt and baseball hat...)

Baby Olive Ridley hatchling that had hatched but not come out of the nest yet.  The heat from the sand told him instinctively that it was not safe to come out that he needed to wait until it got cooler (night time) so he was very sleepy.

 

As the biologist found turtles, eggs, and egg shells, we took measurements and recorded them.

 

 

A little later, close to the chamber, he found four more clumped together for 5 in total.

 

 

 After that, he dug down into the nest and pulled out all the dead baby turtles and empty or not hatched eggs and placed them on this screen to let the sand sift thru to the bucket.

 

 

The scientists sorted them into four different categories:

1.)    A undeveloped egg

2.)   Partially developed/blood noticeable in embryo  

3.)   Fully developed but did not hatch.

4.)   Fully developed baby turtles that hatched but died

 

 

Once they completed this process, they filled up a bucket a few times with the left over sand from the nest and buried it down near the water line. They did this because the sand is considered to be contaminated and they want the sand in the nest to be as clean as possible for next year. So after that they fill up the bucket with new sand and replaced the old sand with new sand to fill the hole where the nest was.

 

 

William was allowed to carry the baby turtles in a bucket of wet sand, back to the base of operation at the Leatherback Trust. Then the bucket is stored in a dark shed, for safe keeping till that night when they would release them to the surf. When they are released, they are put only a couple feet from the water line so that it is familiar with the sand and has more energy. You see, scientists think that sea turtles remember the beach by walking across it when they are babies and this is why they put them near the water line and not in the water.

Blue Revolution

Through my association with Captain Richard and La Paz School, I have become involved with a group called "Blue Revolution."  Below is the info on what the Blue Revolution is about and a video presentation that will be held this Thursday at the ampiltheater at the Hotel Diria in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.  I have been apart of the group of students from both the La Paz and the Country Day Schools in our area along with officials, fisherman and heads of schools.  This event is promoting responsible fishing for a sustainable future.

BLUE REVOLUTION

Dear Community,

 

Did you know that Costa Rica is home to 6% of the world’s biodiversity, much of which resides in the ocean?  Overall, Costa Rica demonstrates  rather successful conservation methods, however most of the focus has been on the deforestation of trees and plants.  There has been little focus on the conservation of our oceans and coastlines. We have spent a lot of our efforts “thinking green” and now it is time to start also “thinking BLUE!”  What would Costa Rica be without its ocean culture?  What would it be without the little, local fishing boats leaving at dawn and returning at dusk with the day’s fresh catch?  How we would miss the fish gracefully swimming around and the majestic sharks skimming the bottoms of the oceans for food!  The preservation of our wildlife is crucial for it provides numerous ecological solutions such as water purification, provision of food, not to mention how this biodiversity contributes to our economy.  Costa Rica’s main source of revenue is ecotourism. Every one of us has the right to know what is going on around us and we have the right to know what is going on with our oceans and the dangers that they are suffering.  Our oceans are being over-fished and many species are well on their way to becoming extinct; marlin and tuna are two such species. What can we do?  We can begin to fish responsibly, respect the ocean and take only what we need.

We need to protect this amazing natural resource!

 

 

We are a group of students, teachers, fishermen and concerned community members who have started the “Blue Revolution.”  We are all different but we have one goal:  to protect the ocean and its marine life.  Our first step is educating the community around us about responsible fishing. If you are like us and want to protect our oceans or if you would like to learn more about our project and the latest plans the Costa Rican Government has for the “Blue Agenda”, please join us on Thursday, November 29^th from 5:30-6:30 at the Hotel Diria outdoor theatre in Tamarindo.  Invite your friends and come join us to learn more about the Blue Revolution!

                                       Rogue Waves

As many of you know the sailing World Cup is happening in the Bay Area in 2013.  There was a tragic boating accident last year where only 3 of the 8 crewmen were found after the sailboat-in-training crashed.  The crash was caused by a rogue wave near the Furlong Islands just outside the bay.  Seeing that I am going to be spending a lot of time on the ocean this year, I figured why not look into what makes a rogue wave a rogue wave.  Well, for starters, until 2001 they were classified as a freak wave and thought to happen only once every 10,000 years.  This figure was made by the scientific committee but quickly justified due to electronic measurements and official accounts of the events. What where once thought to be impossible, actually are thought to happen much more frequently than originally thought.  But, what a freak or rogue wave is, is a wave in rogue water that takes the energy from the wave in front and the wave behind.  But the deadly thing about them is the shape.  They’re not like your normal smooth wave, but instead they break on you like a wave that you would surf on.  So, not only are they bigger, but they also have more forces behind them.  The only problem is that you can never predict where or when they will happen, which is what makes them so deadly.

All Day Fishing Trip

I went out on the Gamefisher 2 on Sunday and here are some of the things I saw.  I was part of the crew with Junior, Scooby and Diego as we took out 4 men from California for some deep sea fishing.  We went about an hour 1/2 out, on calm seas, clear skies.

Fighting Chair with 5 rods

Spinner Dolphins in the water

A 40 lb. Dorado

Catch and Release Sail Fish

Long line...

Dolphins swimming and jumping

A Tuna

More Dolphins chasing the boat

50 lb. Tuna

Sail Fish

Tanker Ship going by

Dolphins and birds

Sailfish in the water

Birds 

Bird taking flight

Meeting the Crew

I met up with Richard at his house on Tuesday morning at 7:30am.  After introducing him to my dad, I rode over to the beach in front of Las Brisas restaurant with his crew, Junior, Scooby and Diego.  We rode out to the boat in an inflatable dingy to where the Gamefisher II was anchored off shore.  Once we were in the boat, we filled up the water and gas tanks, they showed me how to tie up the boat and how to tie different knots, and gave me a tour of the boat.

  

The Gamefisher II is white with blue stripes.  The bow of the boat is hollowed out and has one toilet, and an area where they store all their rods and gear.  They also showed me that they use small fish that they catch for the bait if they don't use live bait.  There is also a fighting chair on the back of the boat with built-in rod holders all around it.  This boat holds 4 fisherman plus the crew of 4.....up to 8 people at a time.

There is a hatch built into the back of the boat that can be opened to pull in extra large fish.  The cockpit is located in a tower where the Captain steers the boat.  This tower is elevated up from the rest of the boat.

After my tour, the crew took me out in the bay to do a little fishing.  We used two spinning rods with a jig (no bait) and even though we did not catch anything, we had a good time.

In the Beginning

Yesterday I had the honor of meeting with Captain Richard Chellemi of the Gamefisher II.  Richard has over 23 years of deep sea and inshore sport fishing experience and is Captain of the #1 sportfishing boat in Costa Rica.  I will be an intern for him during my first trimester on my LEEP program.  Here is a photo of his boat...  

According to their website, the Gamefisher II is a 31' custom-built Palm Beach design sport fisher powered by twin Volvo turbocharged diesel engines. She was tailor made and is immaculately kept, for comfortable offshore day charters for up to 4 anglers.

Richard told me that he would like to teach me about the art of sport fishing in Costa Rica, but that I need to start with familirizing myself with the boat, the equipment, and Spanish names for fish and other commands used on a boat.  Here are a couple examples:

1. Rod = cama

1. Reel = carreta

1. Hook = anzuelo, enganchar

1. Striped Marlin = marlin rayado

1. Bait = carnada

1. Rig = preparer

1. Cast = castiar

1. Mackerel = makerelia

Richard also gave me 2 DVD's to watch.  One is called "Cockpit Chaos:  The does and don'ts" and the other is called "Winds of Papagayo."  Papagayo is the name of the gulf we live in here in Costa Rica.