New wildlife reserve in Costa Rica to protect Leatherbacks and other wildlife.

August 2006. The government of Costa Rica has announced the creation of a new national wildlife refuge (including a 19,846 hectare Marine Protected Area) ‘Caletas-Ario’ on the Pacific coast to help protect the critically endangered leatherback turtles as well as other endangered species. The refuge covers 313 hectares on the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula stretching from Coyote Point along Caletas beach and south past the Bongo River. The Marine Protected Area extends twelve miles off shore, where destructive practices like shrimp trawling and compressor diving will be outlawed.

Four different species of sea turtle, Leatherbacks, Olive ridleys, Pacific greens and Hawksbills, all nest at Caletas. The refuge will also protect a range of sea birds, crocodiles, monkeys, mangroves, the Bongo River mouth, and many fish and crustaceans.

 

‘The Leatherback really put this area on the map,’ point out Alexander Gaos and Ingrid Yanez, co-Directors of Beach Projects at PRETOMA. ‘Scientists estimate that fewer than 1000 adult females nest on the Pacific coasts of North, Central and South America and for this species to avoid extinction we need to protect every single one.’

‘The creation of this refuge is not only vital for leatherback sea turtles, but is right in line with the urgent need for protection of marine areas, which is lagging severely behind land conservation,’ states Randall Arauz, President of PRETOMA.

Courtesy of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.