I still remember, very clearly, the first time I got to Ostional (near Nosara) in January 2005. After almost ten hours traveling on two different buses, I found it really hard to believe that anybody would like to come to this hidden place of the world. But well, that was until I saw my first turtle. Then I understood.
Biological Wonder
Ostional is one of four places in the world that hosts the amazing, massive arrival of nesting Olive Ridley turtles. Once almost every last quarter moon, tens of thousands of Olive Ridley females drag themselves ashore to nest. The event normally lasts three days, but between the months of September and December it could last up to nine days, when hundreds of thousands of turtles nest all day and night.
The Olive Ridley, like all sea turtles, is an endangered species. Consequently this beach became a wildlife refuge, which was officially created in 1984. Ostional is the only nesting beach in the world where harvesting the turtle's eggs is legal and very well organized by the community.
The turtles that laid the golden eggs?
In 1987 a project was initiated to allow local people to collect and sell a percentage of the eggs of each "arribada," as the mass nestings are called. I know it sounds irrational, and to tell you the truth, after 4 visits in the past 3 years I still haven't decided whether it is good or bad.
During an arribada, the turtles start arriving around 4 p.m. and keep coming until 7 a.m. the next morning. The turtles painfully drag their heavy bodies over the beach.
There they dig a nest with their flippers to deposit an average of 100 white eggs, shaped like flat ping pong balls. All together they can lay up to 10 million eggs over a five-day arribada. According to studies done by biologists from the University of Costa Rica (UCR), so many turtles come onto the beach in a short time span that most of the first nests are destroyed by later turtles. Therefore, neither the first nor the second nest will result in new baby turtles.
Once the eggs are opened, bacteria will set in, decomposing everything around it. As many as 90-93% of the eggs laid in an arribada were ruined. Based on these studies, and trying to find a solution to many years of illegal and indiscriminate poaching, the government approved a program that allows members of the community of Ostional for the first 36 hours of an arribada to take all the eggs they want and to sell them.
In return, the community organized to take meticulous care of the beaches and the turtles that fill them with life. These days, community guards watch over the remaining nests and look out for would-be poachers. Members of the community regularly clean the Ostional beach and an additional six kilometers of neighboring beaches. And when the turtles are born, the members of the community stand guard and protect the hatchlings from the vultures.
The Ostional Integral Development Association (ADIO) is the community organization that oversees everything the community does that is related to turtles. Most of the earnings from the sale of the eggs (70%) is split evenly among the approximately 240 "benefit members" of the association who worked during the arribada. The sales are expected to produce between $10 and $100 for each benefit member a month.
The other 30% goes to ADIO's treasury to be spent on various community projects for the approximately 700 residents.
The eggs of contention
While Olive Ridleys are diminishing at many other beaches around the world, at Ostional and neighboring beaches, their numbers have been steadily increasing. This is the main conclusion of many years of research by the UCR biologists.
Gerardo Chavez, resident Biologist from UCR, believes firmly that the control over the density of eggs on the beach, along with constant vigilance over the remaining nests has only helped to increase the number of turtles that successfully make it to the ocean after hatching.
That is why he has no problem gulping down a couple of their eggs, raw, every morning after a full night of being a beach guard during an arribada. Chaves considers himself a conservationist. However, his penchant for the animal's eggs puts him at odds with many turtle conservation groups, which strongly oppose the harvesting or consumption of any turtle product, especially their eggs.
The biggest reproach that is made to this project is that by keeping the eggs in the market legally, it encourages the consumption and consequently the demand. Therefore eggs from other beaches or species that are even more endangered than the Olive Ridley, can make it to the market disguised as legal turtle eggs.
Getting personal
No doubt about it, what happens in Ostional would amaze anyone, in a good, or maybe a bad way. It certainly did amaze me, and that is why I keep going there, no matter that there are rivers, dusty roads or long bus rides.
Anyway, I will always recommend to any visitor or Costa Rican to find some time to spend in Ostional, because seeing Olive Ridley turtles in "arribada mode" is worth the trip. Almost oblivious to the disturbance of man, animals, light, sound or a jam-packed beach, the turtles will come out of the sea bumping into each other, crawling over each other... automatons on their way to fulfill a evolutionarily predetermined task: to lay their eggs at all costs.
What happens after that is up to the "Ostionaleņos."
