For this service break, we got the opportunity to work in Junquillal, a remote beach in Costa Rica with both the staff of Verdiazul and long-term volunteers with ACI. The focus of Verdiazul’s efforts are on marine life sustainability, specifically sea turtle conservation. Sea turtles are an endangered species but more importantly, they are considered a keystone species which means they are particularly important in the wellbeing of the ecosystem as a whole. This being said, protecting them from extinction is a crucial task in not only the preservation if their individual species, but the preservation of our marine life in all as we know it. Additionally, the bulk of the dangers these creatures are facing are results of human carelessness which can be fixed through awareness and proper action. It is now our responsibility to bring back the lessons we’ve learned in our 10 short, eye-opening days and advocate for the necessary environmental changes that need to take place in our everyday lives.
I saw our work as fulfilling the entire life cycle of the sea turtle which is such an amazing thing to witness and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it. Each stage of the cycle that we assisted with was unique and special to both myself and the community so I’m going to discuss each.
I’m going to start with the mama sea turtle and collecting the eggs because this was by far my favorite part of the trip. I was discouraged the first night after the other group saw a turtle and my group did not. Luckily, the next night we saw not just one, but TWO full grown turtles. I was in complete awe at the size of the turtle. I’m not exactly sure what I expected to see but watching her dig the hole, lay her eggs, cover them back up to make the bed, and crawl back into the ocean was truly unforgettable to me. The intelligence and precision of this process continues to amaze me, and I could literally watch this for hours. In fact, we did with the second turtle we saw that night. For almost two hours we waited for the black turtle to lay her eggs when she never did but I wasn’t bored for a second. Being only feet away from something so rare and so special was absolutely breathtaking and I could never get enough. After she left is when our job comes in. We had to collect her eggs in order to protect them from both human and animal predators, so they have the chance to hatch and survive in the wild. It was hard work to walk miles up and down the beach in the middle of the night searching for eggs that may or may not be there but when we did find them, the digging and carrying the 100+ eggs in a bag was serious labor. Despite the hard work and waking up at 3:00 in the morning, those night patrols were the highlight of my trip to see incredible things and see them with a group of people who I’m now fortunate enough to call my friends.
After the collecting comes the preservation. The hatchery is the sanctuary for all the unborn baby sea turtles and the maintenance of this place is no joke! This part probably took the hardest physical toll on me personally. Having to clean out the holes where babies were previously is a lot more work than I expected. I don’t think I’ve sweat that much in my life. This was a whole team effort. When it was my turn in the hatchery, I had to dig a hole that was probably about 18 inches or more in diameter and about 1-meter deep which doesn’t sound too bad until your arm is not 1-meter long and you nearly fall in every time. What made things even more challenging was the fact that the hole could collapse any second or you could damage one of the surrounding nests with eggs in it. A lot of pressure came with being in there. Outside of the hatchery was just as difficult though with passing heavy buckets of water or sand out in the hot sun. To hear the words “flip” came with both discouragement and eventually humor because you knew you were a long way from being done but humorous because all twelve of us were on that struggle bus together, so it made things more bearable. The fact that it took twelve of us to do all of this in about two hours really makes me respect all the work that the long-term volunteers and staff put into these tasks. They are either really good at their jobs to get this done in a timely manner or they push through to do this all day long. All this work is worth it when a fresh batch of babies has survived the 45ish days until hatch time. The upkeep of the hatchery is again a very physically taxing task, but I was on a high this whole trip and had no problem sweating all the water out of my body and coming face to face with death in that Costa Rican sun.
Lastly, we have the baby sea turtles to complete the cycle. Releasing the newborn sea turtles into the ocean was probably the most rewarding part of our experience in Costa Rica and the part that made some of us, including myself, emotional sometimes. Especially after having put in a lot of work in Verdiazul, you see the reason why we are doing all this. It’s an emotional experience because when we take them out of the bucket and put them on the sand, they’re completely on their own with being only less than a day old most of the time and they then have to endure the wrath of the vast ocean. It’s both a hopeful and a dreaded experience because they now have their whole life ahead of them, but we also don’t know if they will even make it through the night. We can’t always help what happens after they enter the ocean but our goal is to release as many healthy babies as possible so that they have a chance to survive. It’s quite the sight to see watching 80+ turtles inching their way into this giant body of water when they are just a tiny spec in it. The most fascinating fact that I learned on this trip is that these sea turtles are released at the spot they are born and spend maybe five minutes on the beach until they enter the water but they are somehow able to remember twenty years later to come back to that exact spot and lay their own eggs. That is truly something special and wonderous.
I think I speak for everyone when I say this experience took a lot of both physical and mental strength to do everything we did. I learned things about myself that I didn’t even know I needed to figure out. One thing that really stood out is that I already knew I loved traveling, but being in a place where you can really live and experience the culture showed me the way that I want and need to travel in order to get the most out of it for myself. After graduation this upcoming May, I planned on joining AmeriCorps but I am now thinking that I need to take advantage of every opportunity that I can to see the world as much and as long as possible and am considering doing the Peace corps instead. This way I am able to serve for a longer period of time in places that need it most and my abilities can be put to the best use. Also, how can I pass up an opportunity to travel completely for free and even get paid for it along with the chance to live in a community that I would never typically visit when I’m graduating college at twenty years old and have my whole life ahead of me? It’s really opened my eyes to see that the way I want to experience the world is through volunteer work which means I need some time there and it is now or never for that. I’m currently and will continue to do more research on this and figure out what is best for me and my future but for now, I am thankful to RSB, ACI, Verdiazul, and all of the great people I had the pleasure to meet in Costa Rica for making this such a valuable and unforgettable experience.
- Hannah Agner