by Rod Hughes

SANTA CRUZ, GUANACASTE–A leatherback turtle, one-and-a-half meters long, swam ashore Sept. 15 to lay her eggs on Junquillal Beach a full month before the average season starts. Usually, the season begins in the middle of October and ends in March of the following year. Last year for example, it began Oct. 17.

“We hope for an egg-laying season more abundant than in recent years,” said scientists of the World Wildlife Fund. The leatherback is one of the most endangered species in the world—91,000 were counted laying eggs in 1980 and only a thousand last year. Scientists in Costa Rica as well as throughout the world have been alarmed at the declining numbers coming ashore.

But scientists are even more encouraged that the turtles come earlier, in cooler weather–beach sand termparture determines the sex of most of the baby turtles born in the shallow nests. If the season is late, temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsus can “cook” the soft-shelled eggs hard. None of the eggs hatch, then.

At Junquillal, a squad of eight young men, nicknamed the “Baula Boys,” protected the nests from marauding dogs–and poachers. Although it is prohibited to harvest more than a small percentage of the eggs, they are still consumed, mostly in cantinas, for their mythical virllity-instilling powers.