We have just discovered why the Costa Rica sea turtle is going extinct, it is not being trapped in fishing nets or global warming or tourism development, but local Costa Ricans’ stealing and/or over harvesting eggs.
The photographs (sent to us by one of our account), show the destruction of the turtle nesting sites with the widespread theft of their eggs. As you can see in the photos bags and bags that are literally filled with hundred and hundreds and even thousands of eggs. These bags are being carried away to be sold to Asian or other overseas countries, which are reported to be from Costs Rica.
Costa Rica has always claimed they were one of the forefathers of turtle conservation … Photos of … sea turtle eggs being over harvesting
Gosh, people are so stupid! This just makes me mad! What idiots.
This is what I’ve just read, are your sources accurate?
As thousands upon thousands of Olive Ridley turtles climb on to a stretch of Playa Ostional, 70-80% of previously laid nests are crushed or dug up during the subsequent nesting. It is for this reason that the Egg Harvest Project is justified. Villagers wait and watch, harvesting the eggs laid in the first day and half of the arribada.
Over the years this practice has proven to increase the percentage of successful hatching by as much as 20%.
http://ticotimes.com/costa-rica/sea-turtle-extinction-stealing-eggs
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/costa-rica-turtle-eggs.shtml
If the villagers are doing this for money and not food, an alternative could be the following: Allow the villagers to harvest the eggs, but the eggs need to be incubated and hatched. Then sell the hatchlings to tourists for more money than the eggs. The tourists will be allowed to carry the hatchling to the ocean and release it. Consider the payment to be for the opportunity to personally get to release the hatchling.
And…..completely bogus. “We have just discovered…”? How, by searching the internet? This is part of an extraordinary conservation program to harvest turtle eggs and move them to better beaches where their of eventually returning to reproduce is greater. If villagers were that insensitive, they would also be killing the turtles.
I live in Costa Rica and am involved in tourism and ecological projects. Have you personally certified your accusations? Paper bears what the writer puts on it, and objectively, maintaining and caring for the turtles has more positive impact through sustaining ecological tourism than selling eggs in the foreign market.
This is a complete distortion of the truth. These photos are real but what you are saying about them is inaccurate. The Costa Ricans in these pictures are collecting Olive Ridley turtles near Ostional, Costa Rica, as part of a Gov. sponsored conservation activity that has been under way for over 15 years. It is a shame that you did not check for the facts on this.
I embarrassed myself and actually flushed with shame after I recently forwarded the seemingly true story and pictures of the turtle egg harvest to numerous conscientious friends without checking it out first on websites such as Snopes or Hoax-net.
I went to Costa Rica this spring with a wonderful tour agency called Majestic Feathers and I learned first-hand that extraordinary environmental efforts to conserve/restore the land, its habitat and creatures are being made.
The mean-spirited hoax has been exposed and now my hope is that enlightenment is the result. I have observed, however, that even tho the photos depicted something entirely different, the effect had on the viewer is certainly an indication that there is a deeply concerned and caring human population around the world keeping tabs on these amazing turtles!
Forgive me, turtles. Forgive me Costa Rica.
I have not been able to verify that this is a hoax. No one above who claims it is has provided a link. What i have found (although i can not verify the sitres legitimacy) is:
http://www.costaricaturtles.org/costa_new_oliveRidley.html
Which states:
”
A primary threat to the Olive Ridley comes from human predation in the nesting habitat. The arribada with its large congregation of nesting females makes it possible for humans to collect huge quantities of eggs and kill or collect (to sell at market) hundreds or even thousands of turtles in one night. This practice of mass harvesting and killing over the past sixty years has caused local populations to plummet in many areas of the globe. Another form of human intrusion that threatens sea turtles is the permanent destruction of the nesting habitat through coastal degradation and development.”
But i’ll keep looking.
Retract everything above:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/seaturtles.asp
Your photos are derived from an spam email. That’s how you do your research? I should contact your funders and let them know how well your spending their money on “research.” You give conservation organizations a bad name. Shame on you.
Snopes? Come on…. they are a bit shall we say ‘one sided’ … use urban legends or hoax busters.