Inside a Nighttime Leatherback Tagging Expedition

The Leatherback Trust, Coonamessett Farm Foundation, and Estacion Las Tortugas collaborated to deploy satellite tags on leatherbacks nesting on Mondonguillo beach, Costa Rica.

Over the course of five nights, a team of scientists deployed 5 ridge mount and 5 tethered tags on leatherback turtles that nested at Estacion Las Tortugas on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

In total, ten turtles were tagged with the goal of determining their habitat usage between nesting events and after the nesting season.

Mondonguillo beach is a 3km black sand nesting site bordered by tropical rainforest. Each season, it hosts between 100–300 nesting leatherbacks, which together lay approximately 150–300 nests.

Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle species in the world, capable of diving to depths exceeding 1,000 meters and traveling nearly 10,000 kilometers in a single year across the ocean.

By attaching satellite tags to these animals, researchers can track their movement patterns and improve protection measures for this endangered species.

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