By Wendy Anders

Pacific ridley turtles, know in Spanish as the tortuga lora (parrot turtle) due to their green color, have a new hatchery in Jacó thanks to the efforts of the Coast Guard and local government, reported the Ministry of Public Security.

High tides this week along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast destroyed the existing infrastructure, where patrols to ensure the safety of incubating eggs can bring in up to 10 nestfuls per night, said public security officials.

To avoid similar potential future damage from high tides, the Garabito county government, placed a barrier of stones and other natural materials to absorb the blow of the waves, according to a press statement.

Because the nursery was flooded, several nests had to be relocated, so Coast Guard officials placed the eggs in insulated chests to maintain them at a stable temperature and ensure proper incubation.

At this tourist hotspot, thousands of ridley turtles have been saved by removing their eggs at night right after they are laid from places where the tourists would set out to sunbathe the following day, and  transferring them immediately to a nearby cordoned-off site.

This nursery has been run for the past four years by a team of local police officers and local residents who are supervised in their conservation work by a Coast Guard marine biologist, said public security officials.

This smallest of the sea turtles reach sizes of up to 70 cms and 40-50 kg, and can lay between 70 and 100 eggs in each nest. The ridley spawning season begins along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast in July and can last until February.

The eggs incubate for approximately 50 days, after which time the nestlings hatch and crawl to the ocean, said Coast Guard officials.

On some Pacific beaches there are occasional massive nesting events in which more than 100,000 turtles can clamber ashore to nest in a single night. These have been observed at Ostional and Nancite beaches, both protected beaches in Guanacaste on the northern Costa Rican Pacific.

There is another ridley turtle that inhabits the Atlantic; both ridleys are quite abundant, but face similar multiple manmade dangers as other sea turtles such as getting trapped in fishing nets, getting entangled in trash, getting hurt by boats, as well as invasion of their nesting areas, said Wikipedia.