Volunteering on Costa Rica’s Beautiful Coast, Saving Sea Turtles

I had an amazing time volunteering on Costa Rica’s beautiful coast. Where at night we went on patrols to search for nests/turtles, scare off poachers (who aren’t always bad) and simply survey the beach. During the day we went on hikes to see the islands natural life and meet new people, cleaned up the beach, cleaned and prepared the hatchery and much more. I’d definitely recommend this conservation project for your next volunteer opportunity. The people were so welcoming and treated us as if we had lived there our whole lives. Everyone had a cool story and a nickname to go with it. Like mechudo and his baby blue jean poisonous dart frog.. Photo will be above – Nikita Barnard

The Sea Turtle Conservation Project in Costa Rica

4-hour night patrols searching for nesting sea turtles

Our volunteers accompany local guides on 4-hour night patrols searching for nesting sea turtles. The eggs are collected and relocated to the project’s guarded hatchery. These patrols play an important role in an on-going scientific investigation where turtles are measured, checked for diseases and tagged while the eggs are collected and relocated to the project’s guarded hatchery. The presence of more people on the beach means less opportunity for the poachers, who will steal the turtle eggs and kill the turtles to sell the meat illegally.

Walk 6 km on the beach in the Moonlight

For the night patrols volunteers should be in good physical condition to walk 6 km of beach and back. They should also have good night vision as most of the work is done in the dark with only red-lensed flashlights. You need to be careful while walking on the beach during the patrols, because some nights you will be soaked by heavy rains, other nights high tides will spray you, and always driftwood is there to trip you in the dark. But there will also be beautiful nights with a full moon, the sky full of stars and best of all nesting turtles. Day work involves hatchery duty, beach cleaning and assisting in nest exhumations and release of hatchlings. There are also a lot of other environmental projects to help with around the village.

Find out more about the volunteer project

Visit our page with the Costa Rica Sea Turtle Conservation Project. You might as well be interested in learning more about animal conservation volunteering projects in different countries, like South Africa, Thailand or India.

Read more Volunteer Experiences with the Sea Turtles in Costa Rica