Hawksbill turtle release in Costa Rica

On our first full day in Costa Rica a couple of weeks ago, we ran into an old friend of ours named Susana Schick, who was our neighbor when my wife and I lived in this area working with a local leatherback turtle project.  We let her know that SEE Turtles was funding the release a couple of rehabilitated hawksbill turtles through our partners at WIDECAST Latin America.  Susana, who has a long history of doing environmental education in this region, immediately started working on bringing her daughter's class from the local elementary school in Puerto Viejo.

The plan came to fruition this morning.  As we bumped along the dirt road leading north from town, we saw a group of 12 students in the two-toned blue uniforms happily walking along a beach.  I'm not sure if they were more excited about seeing the turtles or the fact that they had escaped the classroom for a rare field trip, but either way, we had a fun group ready to learn.

We introduced our group, made up of my and my two sister's families and my mom to the kids and gathered around our rental van to give them an impromtu slide show on sea turtles that I had on my computer.  Randall, from the Seahorse Aquarium in Limon, soon arrived with the two hawksbills that we were going to release.  These gorgeous turtles were confiscated by the police and given to Randall to nurse back to health in his aquarium.

Randall then spoke to the kids about the local situation of these critically endangered turtles and why its important to protect them.  Susana did a quick poll before the presentation of how many of the kids had tried turtle meat; all but two raised their hands.  Eating turtles in this region has been common for generations; hopefully we are beginning the process of changing minds with activities like this.  Each kid, both local and foreign, had a chance to touch the shells of the turtles before being released.  Two brave young boys volunteered for the honor of releasing them and all of the kids helped keep them hydrated with water as they walked to the ocean.