La Arribada

The Arribada has arrived. Phenomena that only happens here in Ostional and a few other beaches around the world. I think Ostional is in the top three for the largest arribadas.. or something like that... The arrival of thousands of Olive Ridley Turtles about once a month. This girl on the left was a trooper. Only had one back flipper. Took her a while to get down to the water and she probably had a hell of a time digging her nest.


The Arribadas here have been getting smaller and smaller with the dry season but during the wet season they've seen numbers of about 200,000 turtles over a period of about 5 days. The largest Arribada was in 1995 with 500,000 turtles coming up to nest. The last one was a small one, only 3 thousand in three days. We're not really sure how large this one is yet.
Picture on right digging her body pit before she digs the nest. They look pretty awkward on land, I have to say.



Finished my 12am-6am hatchery shift yesterday and made my way down the beach hoping to see some of the leftover Olive Ridleys. There were still quite a few nesting and moving to and from the water. Cool to finally see some turtles in daylight. I've really only seen them at night on patrols and such.





We're not exactly sure why this occurs here... many people think its because of the moon phases and other think the turtles are able to find their way back because of the high amount of tectonic activity on the Nicoya Peninsula (some geology for you, Jesse)








But of course with every Arribada... in edition to seeing all these turtles, you see the egg harvesters. Ostional is the only beach in the world where egg harvesting is legal. Its very stringent and controlled... the locals are only allowed to harvest eggs if they're part of the association, if they've been approved and accepted, and they can only collect eggs for the first three days of the arribada. While its a bit tough to watch, there are some benefits to it. Having legal egg harvesting greatly diminshes the amount of illegal poaching, and the members of the association keep the beach clean...supposedly. They also harvest eggs that will likely be dug up by the arrival of other turtles as the Arribada continues.



They say it has its benefits but none of us here really see the necessity of it. Really there is no necessity. The locals don't need to live off the money they earn selling eggs and people don't depend on sea turtle eggs for food. I guess its just a tradition thing... and the fact that Sea Turtle eggs are aphrodisiacs.. at least they leave the leatherbacks alone.