File photo: Sea turtle hatchlings make their way to the ocean. Photo: Sea Shepherd / Simon Ager
Sea Shepherd volunteers for 2015 Sea Turtle Defense Campaign Operation Jairo are currently on the ground in Costa Rica and Honduras, defending endangered nesting turtles and their eggs from poaching. With an average of only one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings surviving to adulthood, these imperiled marine animals need our help in order to have a fighting chance against extinction!
In the video below, watch as newly hatched baby turtles safely reach the ocean with the help of Sea Shepherd’s Operation Jairo crew, working together with a biologist from non-profit organization Quelonios del Caribe, in Costa Rica. Sea Shepherd volunteer Ben Harris of England recounts the timely rescue of the hatchlings on Pacuare Beach, which took place just before the tide would have washed over the nest, making it difficult for the tiny turtles to climb out from beneath the heavy sand. The eggs that had not yet hatched, 66 in total, were relocated to a hatchery, where they will be guarded until the turtles have emerged and are ready to be released to the sea.
Operation Jairo continues in Costa Rica and Honduras, and will also launch in southeastern Florida on July 15. Sea Shepherd volunteers from six nations will come together to work with Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (S.T.O.P) in Florida to guide turtle hatchlings safely to the sea, as well as to ensure that ordinances regulating commercial lighting along the beaches – which can disorient nesting turtles and hatchlings and cause them to head away from the sea and toward dangerous roadways – are adhered to and enforced. To learn more about Operation Jairo and to help keep our crew patrolling the beaches in defense of the turtles, please visit: www.seashepherd.org/jairo.
