Residents of Playa Coyote in Santa Cruz, province of Guanacaste, have always enjoyed massive arrivals of the equally massive leatherback sea turtles during nesting season. In 2014, however, the gentle giants have mostly ignored this quiet beach community in Costa Rica; a situation that has neighbors and conservation activists extremely worried.

According to Pablo Rojas of online news daily CRHoy.com, residents of Playa Coyote have not actually seen a single leatherback sea turtle on the beach. Neighbors and conservationists have been coming out to various spots along the beach since November, and they were expecting the peak of the massive arrival in mid-January. Dermochelys coriacea typically waits until the “green” (rainy) season has subsided in Costa Rica before it arrives to nest; climate change has pushed the start of the dry season a little later in the year; Playa Coyote residents have taken this into account, which does not even begin to explain the absolute dearth of leatherback sea turtles.

Turtle Egg Poachers Not Suspected

The sad murder of environmentalist Jairo Mora last year while protecting sea turtle nests in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica raised the alarm along coastal communities throughout the country. Playa Coyote residents talked about death threats by poachers; yet none of these alleged menaces were confirmed. To this effect, environmentalist Erick Lopez from the renowned marine conservation organization PRETOMA explained to CRHoy.com that:

“Not all sea turtles nest at once. Other species are nesting now, and in July we expect the green sea turtles to arrive. We’ve had no leatherback arrivals at Playa Coyote, but the situation is fine elsewhere. There will always be poachers unless law enforcement is present at the beach.”

Mr. Lopez added that there are other factors to consider:

“These turtles feed on jelly fish as they swim towards South America, but they often get tangled in the longlines of the commercial fishing industry.”

In recent years, Costa Rica has enacted measures to prohibit longline fishing in her territorial waters and to make sea turtle egg poaching a felony crime. Guanacaste remains one of the most important nesting sites for various sea turtle species around the world.