Leatherback Sea Turtle, Tortuga Baula - Critically Endangered. Mi Casa Hostel & Hotel El Manglar Playa Grande
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Las Baulas National Marine Park (Parque Marino las Baulas) is located on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica near the town of Playa Grande, where Mi Casa Hostel & Hotel El Manglar is located. It supports the largest nesting colony of leatherback sea turtles (baulas) on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The Las Baulas National Park is one of the world's few remaining sites of significant leatherback turtle nesting activity. The numbers of these giant, marine reptiles are declining world-wide and they have disappeared completely from many historically important nesting areas.Various human activities including beachside development, poaching of eggs and accidental capture by fishing vessels have driven the species close to extinction.
The Las Baulas (Spanish for Leatherback turtle) project in Costa Rica is dedicated to protecting and understanding the population of turtles nesting in the National Park so that the species may be saved. Nesting season is each year from late September to March.
The Turtle Tours are organized by MINAE. During Turtle Season access to the beach is restricted. For more details please contact the MINAE office in Playa Grande at (506) 2653-0470 (506) 2653-0470 or we can book for you in our frontdesk.
Nesting
It takes leatherbacks 8 to 15 years to reach reproductive maturity. Like all other sea turtle species, they return to the beach where they hatched to lay their eggs. Leatherbacks lay 50-180 eggs per nest and incubation takes 50-55 days. Hatchlings are tiny, only 2 to 2.25 inches (5 to 6 cm) long and weigh 1.6 oz (45.8 g). Their predators include ghost crabs, herons, dogs, mongooses and ants. Primary breeding grounds: Pacific coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica; French Guyana and Suriname in the western Atlantic and Gabon in the eastern Atlantic; the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Trinidad and Colombia; and Indonesia.
Major threats to the survival of the leatherback include: Human Beings!
- the accidental capture and drowning of sea
- turtles in the tuna and swordfish fisheries;
- commercial exploitation of sea turtle eggs;
- development and destruction of nesting beaches;
- ocean pollution; and ingestion of plastic bags and other garbage.
