Costa Rica is an amazing country! The people I encountered, the food I ate, the work I did will forever have a special place in my heart. December 12 - 21, 2019, I travel with a group from Texas Tech University to Costa Rica. Our main reason for going was sea turtle conservation. We also participated in beach clean-up and helping clean up Verdiazul’s building area. Verdiazul is the conservation organization we worked with located in the Guanacaste region, by Junquillal beach. http://verdiazulcr.org/
While in Costa Rica so many of my dreams became a reality. My whole life I have wanted to work with an organization to save my favorite animal, Sea Turtles! While working with Verdiazul, our team was able to do many amazing things. During the day we helped in the hatchery. The hatchery is where they put the turtle eggs for them to be able to hatch safely. More turtles are hatching in the hatchery than they are in the wild because of many reasons such as poachers and global warming. We also were able to go on night patrols. During most night patrols we would walk around four miles. On the patrols, together both teams found more than six hundred eggs. The majority of the eggs were Olive Ridley eggs. Olive Ridley is also called the Lora. The other eggs were Black sea turtle eggs. The Black sea turtle is also called the Negra. The Olive Ridley and the Black sea turtles are some of the most common in the area. The other turtle that visits Junquillal Beach but not as often is the Leatherback turtle, also called the Baula. Leatherback sea turtles one of the rarest sea turtles.
On one of our work days, our team walked the beach and cleaned up trash. We were also able to release so many baby sea turtles. We released three hundred and twenty-four.
One experience that had a positive impact on me was when I was able to release the baby sea turtle that was a late bloomer. I got to clean out one of the nest in the hatchery and I found a baby turtle that hatched later than the others. When releasing the late bloomers, I realized that I wanted to do everything I could to help these wonderful animals. The statistics for how many sea turtles live to be adults is very low. Without sea turtles the ocean ecosystem would not survive. The larger animals would lose a source of food without sea turtles. The smaller animals would overrun certain areas. The coral reef would overgrow and so much more. Saving the sea turtles will help so many things. Something else that really impacted me is the issues global warming has caused. While in Costa Rica we saw some of the effects of global warming such as many bugs were coming out in the wrong season. Because of global warming the sand gets too hot for sea turtle eggs and it burns them up. So many things are going in a bad direction because of global warming and people can do something about it.
There are many things that I can do in my community to make a difference. I plan to continue to recycle. I also plan to continue serving at homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
Throughout my whole time in Costa Rica I learned so many valuable things. I am so thankful for this opportunity and everything thing it taught me. I meet so many amazing people and I am very grateful for their friendship.
- Sydney O'Guinn