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Marine Turtle Newsletter 49:25-26, © 1990

Playa Grande Leatherback Turtle Rookery in Danger

Jack G. Frazier
Programa Regional de Vida Silvestre, Apartado 1350, Heredia, Costa Rica

One of the most important leathery turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), known as "baula" in Costa Rica, nesting beaches in the world is the Playa Grande/Playa Longosta complex in Guanacaste Province of Pacific Costa Rica. On a beach little more than 2 km in length, more than 200 turtles may nest nightly during the peak season. In 1987, Tamarindo Wildlife Sanctuary was created to protect Playa Grande and an adjoining mangrove estuary. Unfortunately, the Sanctuary is "U"-shaped, running down the Playa Grande shoreline and up the estuary shore. The central area, about 1 km across, was sold to a German development firm which has now put in roads and electrical and water lines to accommodate nearly 200 private luxury houses in the Tamarindo Beach Development Plan. Activities of this company have, among other environmental perturbations, resulted in the recent deforestation and burning of important areas of remnant dry tropical forest and also mangrove forest, including areas which are public property, and disturbance to cultural and archaeological treasures.

It is not known how lighting and sewage will be dealt with in the development scheme, but recent political pressure to cut through the mangrove for water and electrical access (despite strict legal protection of this endangered habitat) do not evince a great environmental awareness. Potential dangers to the nesting and hatchling turtles from artificial lights and sewage are obvious. Disturbance during the construction phases and later by large concentrations of residents living virtually on the beach are also of critical concern for the future of the turtles.

Please write a letter to: President Elect, Lic. Rafael A. Calderón, San José, Costa Rica, expressing concern for the fate of the internationally important "baula" rookery and asking that all measures be taken to protect it. Please send a copy of your letter to: Dr. Gabriel Quesada, Environmental Adviser, Ministry of Natural Resources and Mining, Apartado 10104-1000, San José, Costa Rica. Please express your views on this important issue as soon as possible.