Doing My Part – Saving the Sea Turtles

On the beach in the Parque National Jaragua in the Dominican Republic, walks an elderly man with a rifle over his shoulder. He is watching over the 1,000-pound Leatherback turtles nesting in the sand.

Erin Leline…and turtle.

Blanco, now 82, has been saving Leatherback turtles from poachers for some 50 years on this beach. He has deep wise eyes, a youthful grin, skin as dark as the night, and a look about him that reminds me of the turtles. He has written a song during his wanders along the beach, that he sings night after night.

Working for a conservation group called Grupo Jaragua, Blanco lives in on a small plot of land with five little cement houses and many produce gardens. Four of the houses are inhabited by his family, and the fifth is a special hut containing up to 60 coolers.

When sea turtle nests are found on the beach by conservation groups, the delicate turtle eggs are dug up and kept in the incubators (coolers) for 60 days until the hatchlings can be released back into the ocean. Through the efforts of Blanco and the conservation staff of Grupo Jaragua, the hatching rate of the leatherback turtle jumped from about 40 percent to 70 percent. The cement house keeps the temperature close to the temperature three feet down in the sand where the nest originated.

I met Blanco at the end of my last trip to the Dominican Republic. I had been working at Hogar Doٌa Chucha, a boarding school for underprivileged girls. During that time, I also volunteered for a weekend to walk the beach at night with Blanco and alert the conservation group when we found a nest that needed to be moved. Around 2 am, with my headlamp on, I watched a 15 foot female leatherback dig a nest, lay approximately 80 eggs, bury her nest and spend a half hour making designs in the sand to hide her nest. That moment in time impacted me in a way I had never expected. From that night on I was hooked.

In May, I will be headed back to the Dominican Republic. Of course, upon my arrival I will spend time with the girls at the Hogar; being my fourth visit, I have made friendships with the children that will last our lifetimes. However, the focus of this month long trip will be weekly trips to the beach to track and document the activities of the Leatherback sea turtles in order to continue the conservation group’s progress, as well as build upon the existing framework toward sustainability.

Each week, from the capital city of Santo Domingo, I will pack my bag and head off to Independence Avenue to catch a Guagua – a bus similar in design to those I once rode to Gibraltar but in horrifyingly bad condition! After about a half hour of bumping through the traffic jams of 4 million people, I will settle in on the most uncomfortable bus seat one can think of for the long haul to a town called Pedernales, which is located on the southern border of the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti.

I will try to sleep my way there, knowing that I have hard work and long hours ahead of me, but around every corner there will be another breathtaking view of the ocean crashing up against the mountainous coast. It is here that I will start my journey doing the best I can to help save the sea turtles.

Working with another conservation group volunteer, our mornings will consist of an hour drive to meet a boat at a salty lagoon where Blanco takes us to the opposite side to begin our day walking along littered white sand beaches. The first beach is 16 km and after crossing a rocky separation, the second beach is only 3 km. If we should find a turtle’s nest or hatchlings, we record the data necessary so that we can return to that exact location with the rest of the group to either remove the eggs for incubation or count the broken shells to know how many have hatched. During this walk we will also talk with the playeros, beach dwellers, asking what they have seen that day. What kinds of nesting turtles they have seen, if they noticed any nesting or if they saw any nests being robbed of its eggs. Helpful tidbits of information are given, but we know we will not get the whole story, as the playeros are also consuming turtle eggs.

The Dominican government employs a few guards who are to patrol the Parque, keeping poachers out. However, the government pays these guards only 2,000 pesos per month (about $65 USD) and they are expected to walk the beach every night to protect the nesting turtles. Sadly, a client will pay up to $2,400 pesos ($77 dollars) for just one nest of eggs (there can be anywhere from 3-30 nests a month, each nest containing between 70-120 eggs), which is quite a temptation for the guard who is most likely struggling to feed his family.

For those turtle hatchlings whose nests go undisturbed, they face the arduous process of working as a team to dig their way out of their three foot deep nests, to then clamber over the sand in hopes of making it to the water where they face many more dangers because of their size. These hatchlings are guided by the smell of the sea and the light of the moon; however, when resorts are built on the beach front and leave their lights on at night, the turtle hatchlings become confused and, more often then not, head inland where they die of exhaustion and famine.

These gentle creatures of the sea date back more than 200 million years and have survived the dinosaur extinction and the Ice Age but are now struggling to survive the pollution of their waters and beaches. Currently, all seven sea turtle species are on the Endangered Species list and I am focusing my energy on educating myself and those around me about the conservation and preservation of these species.

I now have what most people would call a grand obsession with sea turtles. I am writing my senior thesis paper, at the University of Minnesota, on the perilous effects of human interactions with the sea turtles and their environment as well as the importance of education and awareness to improve conservation efforts. Upon graduation, I will be working in Costa Rica directly with the incubation, satellite tagging and protection of sea turtles on the Pacific Coast, living Robinson Crusoe style on the beach – a mere two hour walk away from the nearest town with electricity.

Between poaching and environmental pollution, the sea turtles are at a high risk of extinction. A few conservation groups are making a special effort to raise awareness of the sea turtles blight, and I will do my part in any way I can.

If any interested readers would like to help, Grupo Jaragua has a small wish list: headlamps, flashlights (preferably battery free), insect repellent, and batteries.

If you would like to read more about their efforts, find them at http://www.grupojaragua.org.do

Erin Leline was born and raised in Door County. A 2004 graduate of Gibraltar High School, she is currently working toward her Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies, focusing on the Environment and Sustainable Development in Latin America, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.