COSTA RICA: Tamarindo's Green Sea Turtles and Instinct

Tamarindo has protected beaches where instinct drives green sea turtles to come back to the exact same beach where they were born, 15 years earlier, to lay their eggs. 

With an accredited guide, visitors can come at night to witness nature and instinct come together. 

(Only red flashlights are used as turtles are not affected by the red light.)

 

One female turtle will lay 1,000 eggs. But out of those 1,000 eggs only one will survive to reproductive maturity of 15 years old.

She may come back to the beach 3 to 4 times per season. Each time she will lay 1000 eggs. But she will not be fertile again for another 3 to 4 years. Then the cycle will begin again.

She may come onto the beach and not find the perfect spot, and return to the water about 20 minutes later. She will then come back the next night to try to lay her eggs.

It may take several attempts to find the perfect spot. This one is a young one. She is inexperienced and because of the grass she has not found the perfect spot . She did not lay her eggs and she headed back out to sea and will return to try again.

When she finds the perfect spot she will dig a hole to lay her eggs, cover them up, then head back to sea. This could take several hours. We did not get to see this while we were there. 

Another interesting cocktail party fact is that the only time they are on land is to lay their eggs. So for 15 years they are swimming, literally, all over the world.

When the eggs hatch they all hatch at the same time and 1,000 tiny turtles scurry out to sea.

We saw the last one of this nest scamper to sea.

 Maybe this will be a she that will return in 15 years to continue the cycle.