Ocean Sentry
(From costaricapages.com) – The huge, magnificent Leatherback turtles have started their long journey of about 7,000 kilometers from Guanacaste, Costa Rica to seas of Chile and back. The turtles repeat the trek every three or four years, always to return to Costa Rica in order to lay their eggs and reproduce where they were born.
Scientists from Costa Rica, France and the United States conducted a study that was published in the PloS Biology Magazine this week that stated that the turtle’s journey takes place once they have laid their eggs. Nesting usually starts in October and lasts until March or beginning of April the following year. The Leatherbacks nest in one of three beaches, Playa Grande, Playa Ventanas or Playa Langosta, all of which are located within the protected National Marine Park Las Baulas on the Guanacaste coast. During this 6-month period, each turtle can nest up to 11 times, laying up to 66 eggs at a time, a process that can take up to nine days.
Once nesting is over, the turtles depart for the Galapagos islands in Ecuador, where they feed to regain some strength, but never to lay eggs, a priviledge resereved for the Costa Rica beaches. Their journey then takes them down the Pacific along the South American coast this time in a more dispersed manner.
