Sustainable Harvest of Sea Turtle Eggs

Sustainable Harvest of Sea Turtle Eggs at Ostional National Wildlife Refuge

Millions of turtle eggs are legally collected and sold by the residents of the community of Ostional every nesting season under the supervision of the rangers and biologists at the refuge.

There are both good and bad aspects to legally harvesting sea turtle eggs and we believe the good far outweigh the bad. Before shooting off an angry e-mail about “baby turtle massacres” please take the time to read the entire article and if righteous indignation still reigns by all means vent.

Cattle egrets at the mouth of the Nosara River on the far south end of Playa Ostional

Turtle tracks in the sand on Playa Ostional — Turtle tracks in the sand from the previous night

Leathery remnants of the shells from turtles that hatched earlier in the season

Playa Ostional is a clean slate after the high tide washed away the thousands turtle tracks from the previous night's nesting — Playa Ostional is a clean slate after the high tide washed away the thousands turtle tracks from the previous night’s nesting

Not all of the turtles survive the challenges of nesting.

Sunset at the intersection of playa Ostional and playa Nosara

Sunset is when the excitement begins to build at Ostional National Wildlife Refuge (Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Ostional)

By the time there was enough light to photograph, most of the estimated 8,000 turtles that had come ashore while we were there had returned to the Pacific ocean. — Playa Ostional Olive Ridley sea turtles heading back to the ocean

Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtle

Eggs end up strewn on the beach as late arrivals dig up the nests of their predecessors.

Lone Olive Ridley turtle returning to the sea as the sun rises on playa Ostional — Lone Olive Ridley turtle returning to the sea as the sun rises

Sunrise reflected on the water, Playa Ostional — Sunrise reflected on the water

The peak of the turtle nesting season — Peak season is Aug. – Dec but there is activity here year round.

This late comer was headed ashore after sunrise when nearly all of her companions had already headed back. We watched her for about an hour as she made her way up to the high tide mark, scratched around in the sand, changed her mind and headed back to the water — This late comer made her way up to the high tide mark, scratched around in the sand, changed her mind and headed back to the water.

A little after dawn the whole village gathers on the beach and draws numbers to find out which section they’re assigned to dig up.

Tens of thousands of turtles come ashore on this small stretch of beach — Tens of thousands of turtles nest here and only a very small percentage of the eggs survive

We used to strongly recommend against eating turtle eggs as an aphrodisiac or unusual boca because nearly all of the eggs were harvested illegally, but now income from legally harvested eggs is an important part of the conservation efforts and recovery of the Olive Ridley turtles. — We used to recommend against eating turtle eggs but now harvesting helps conservation

Eggs collected legally and under the guidance of wildlife biologists. — Legally and sustainably harvested eggs have helped increase the number of hatchlings

Sacks of eggs like these are an important source of income for the local community and the conservation efforts for Ostional and the Olive Ridley turtles.

Conservation, Opportunism or Both?

The Statistics

Tens of thousands of turtles come ashore on this small stretch of beach to nest and out of the millions of eggs laid far less than one in a thousand would result in a turtle hatchling making it to the ocean even if no human ever came anywhere near the beach.

Natural predators like coyotes and vultures dig up many but even more are destroyed when subsequent waves of turtles come in on following nights.

Surprisingly destruction, predation and even mass collecting by humans are only a tiny impact on the overall success rate. 85% of the nests that survive intact for the full incubation period never develop and hatch baby turtles. No one knows why.

The Collection

Scientists carefully monitor collecting part of the excess (there are still plenty for the coyotes and vultures). The eggs are inventoried and certified for legal sale providing income for the locals and for future conservation efforts.

Whether you believe that turtle eggs are natural viagra or not some do and they end up as bocas on many menus.

The Results

The locals are strongly motivated to protect the area, the adults, the nests, and even the hatchlings as they make their run to the Pacific.

This has all but eliminated the local black market for eggs in this region, reduced questionable fishing practices by international fleets (due to conservation pressure funded with the profits) and improved the quality of the beach by eliminating sewage, runoff, ATVs etc.

It’s reasonable to estimate that since the introduction of the legal harvest more baby turtles reach the ocean each season than did a thousand years ago before humans started interfering.

The turtle eggs available for consumption from Ostional are collected legally and under the guidance of wildlife biologists (they haul them out by the hundreds of thousands). The income from the sales helps with Turtle conservation projects and the number of hatchlings is up.

The Analogy

Think of it like cherries. Each year people can harvest a thousand cherries from each tree but also plant half a dozen cherries. After a few years you have way more cherry trees than you started with, can harvest even more and plant even more.

You can also use the income from the cherries to protect the trees from people who might want to cut them down to use the wood for furniture or build condos where the trees are growing…

The Negatives

There is a potential downside to this story. It’s been suggested that the existence of legal turtle eggs on the market provides cover for illegal turtle eggs to be sold at bars and restaurants. This may be true to some degree, but we all know that billions of dollars worth of contraband and illegal substances are sold every year around the world whether there’s “legitimate cover” or not.

Income from the legally harvested eggs is used to prevent illegal poaching and I believe that poaching would increase not decrease if you eliminated the legal market.

We’ve received e-mails from people who try to equate this story with elephants in Africa where all ivory ownership, export and trade is illegal. The idea is that if the economic value of the tusks can be eliminated by confiscating and destroying any that aren’t attached to elephants then maybe poachers will stop killing the elephants for ivory. Using ivory income to try to improve conservation would never work.

Fortunately egg harvesting is completely different from the ivory situation. Using the income to fight poaching elsewhere and promote turtle conservation locally and worldwide works well.

If people were collecting turtle shells it would be a different story, but it’s not. It’s a great story of how people and wildlife can coexist and even thrive together.