Andres Santana

What a perfect ending today for the kid’s team “los Protectores del Medio Ambiente”. After 3 months studying the sea turtles of Punta Descartes, today was the last class for the kids. After the class we started the topic of responsible fishing at Manzanillo Beach. Suddenly, one of our researchers, Damien of Jobo community came out of the water with a juvenile Carey Turtle. A  short moment later, they were identifying, measuring and tagging our new friend: DPA (Damien and Los Protectores del medio Ambiente). Soon DPA was back in the water. This was an amazing end for the students of the sea turtle program. The promise of protecting those turtles are a good start for the next environmental education topic which is ” RESPONSABLE FISHING.” DPA like all Carey Turtles feed on small fish, making fish nursery protection a vital aspect of Carey conservation. Thank you DPA for coming into our lives and inspiring our kids !

Sea turtle conservation is an everyday task. Today, we went at Copal Beach with two future turtle biologist. They are part of the kids group Los Protectores del Medio Ambiente. The mission today was designing and creating wood board signs. The signs inform the public “Please do not release a sea turtle tangled on a fishing line or having an hook on its mouth, call …. or seek Mati for assistance” . Please do not release a sea turtle tangled on a fishing line or having an hook on its mouth, call …. or seek Mati for assistance. Cleaning up After putting up the signs we cleaned the beach. During the clean up we talked about the origin of the trash, specifically plastic and its impact on sea turtles. Plastic is a huge problem for sea life. It affects sea turtles, birds, fish, mammals, and even invertebrates. We classified the trash that we found along the beach according to International Coastal Protocol. In total 13kg of trash was collected. The result was Plastic as a clear WINNER: 42 plastic bottles, 60 plastic food bags (mostly wrappers), 41 m of fishing line, 85 small pieces of plastic smaller than 2.5 cm. Not surprising 100% of the plastic was from Costa Rican products bought at local supermarkets. Some of the material found was sent to recycling. Thanks again to the Protectores del Medio Ambiente for joining this hard fight for nature. They are our future we are proud of them .PLEASE help them by not forgeting your trash on the beach . Spanish Translation  La conservacion de las tortugas marinas es una tarea de todos los días. Hoy fuimos a Playa Copal con dos niños (futuros tortugologos 😉 ) del grupo los Protectores del Ambiente. La misión del día: pintar dos rótulos de madera que informen a las personas sobre que hacer en caso que encuentran una tortuga enruedada en un linea pesquera o una tortuga con un anzuelo.  El mensaje: “AYUDA Tengo una linea o Tengo un anzuelo – Por Favor Llame al …. o busque a Mati” Limpieza de playa Después de crear los rotulos y colocarlos en un lugar visible patrullamos toda la playa buscando basura y hablando del problema del plastico en los océanos. La colecta dio como resultado cuatro bolsas de plastica llenas; 13kg en total de basura. La basura se clasifico segun el protocolo de international Coastal Clean Up. No dimos cuenta que una vez mas el plastico es el desecho mas importante en la suciedad de nuestras playas. Un total de 42 botellas plásticas, 60 envoltorios plásticos de comida (chips, galletas, confites, etc.), 41 m de linea pesquera y 85 pedazo de plastico o estereofon de un tamaño inferior a 2,5cm fueron encontrados. El 100% de las marcas de la basura eran marcas que se encuentran en los supermercados de Costa Rica. Se envío a reciclar todo el material posible. Gracias a estos niños por envolucrarse tanto con estas actiones tan inportantes para nuestra planeta! Somos orgullosos de ustedes. JUTOS PODEMOS AYUDARLOS: PASO UNO:  NO OLVIDES O NO BOTES TU BASURA EN LAS PLAYAS O EN EL MAR !!!!