Nature Air

International conservationists continue to protest Costa Rica’s plan to downgrade Las Baulas Marine Park, threatening the very existence of the ancient, Leatherback sea turtle. The country’s national park system anchors the billion dollar a year tourism industry and compromising it will undermine this vital economic sector, not to mention its global status as a bastion of wildlife and ecosystem protection.

On Sept 2^nd, Carl Safina, Ph.D. wrote an opinion piece in La Nacion, voicing his opposition to the proposed plan for Las Baulas, which we have translated and printed below. Dr. Safina is a member of the Blue Ocean Institute at Stony Brook University in New York. He wanted me to add the following to his editorial, “You can say I was there for 12 days in 2003 in the course of writing my book Voyage of the Turtle, but more than that I visited leatherback turtle nesting and feeding and migration areas in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean, California, Mexico, Costa Rica, and New Guinea. I got a really good feel for the importance of Baulas Park.”

While you read Dr. Safina’s opinion piece, please spend a moment with the incredible photograph of the subject of this outcry from conservationists around the world. Who will speak for these exquisite, timeless beings if we don’t?

To the Editor,

Many  international conservationists are disturbed by news that Costa Rica’s Congress is considering a bill to do away with Las Baulas National Park. Baulas is not only absolutely vital to the existence of Costa Rica’s Pacific leatherback sea turtles. It is the most important remaining nesting ground of this critically endangered turtle in the entire east Pacific Ocean. 

These turtles are extraordinary; they can weigh up to one ton. A few yearsago, I traveled throughout the Atlantic and Pacific while researching a book I wrote on these creatures. I saw many of their sites and former sites, and came to understand what is needed for their survival, and how, in well-managed sites in the Caribbean, especially Trinidad, these turtles draw many tourists.

Their Pacific population is in great trouble due mainly to beach disturbance. They have declined by about 98 percent since the early 1980s. Former large nesting populations in Mexico are a tiny fraction of earlier numbers. In the west Pacific, the leatherback turtle’s largest population has apparently gone extinct in the last few years.

These creatures, and the world, need Costa Rica to do what it can to protect the remaining Pacific leatherbacks and promote their recovery. And so little is required. All that is needed is darkness on the beach at night and protection of nests. The beach at Las Baulas Park that is currently without houses should remain so, and the Park should be reaffirmed by Costa Rica’s Congress. Existing homeowners should keeps lights low and use yellow bulbs outside at night. For this little investment, Costa Rica and cooperating local homeowners would make a significant contribution to world conservation. 

Carl Safina, PhD

Blue Ocean Institute

Stony Brook University, New York, USA

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