First Night at Goldring-Gund

It’s 10:30 AM, the sun is beating down.  It’s hot…  maybe 85 already.  The surfers have been out for hours.  Before them came the runners.  Before the runners came a photographer, scouting the beach for any sign of sea turtles that he could take a photo of.  It’s like playtime for a National Geographic wanna-be.  Playa Grande–our beach–is only open to the public from 5 AM – 6 PM each day.

In the overnight hours when the beach is closed?  Well, of course that is when our students–with special permits from the national park–do their work.  In the overnight.  Under the full moon.  Then under the setting moon.  Then under the stars.

Last night was night #1 volunteering with the Goldring-Gund Marine Biology Station at Parque Nacional Las Baulas.  Our students got their shift assigned right before dinner.  Some worked in the hatchery, some on the Ventanas Beach, some on the north end of Playa Grande, and the rest on the south Playa Grande stretch.  All in all, this is around a 5 km stretch of protected Pacific coastline that is home to the densest nesting site for leatherback turtles in the eastern Pacific.

Students are waking up now after their long night of work.  Brunch is served each day at 11 AM.  At first count, though, 10 students have seen a nesting Olive Ridley turtle already and 2 have seen a nesting leatherback.  Arms outstretched as wide as she could, Meredith Bickett, who saw the leatherback momma, said “It was this BIG!”

At dawn, students got another great surprise.  98 Olive Ridleys hatched during the night at the station’s hatchery.  The group helped the turtles out to sea.