Intern Voice: Cleaning up our act

-Written by Max, Jan and Kyle, 6 month interns

In celebration of Earth Day, our GVI team cleaned up a three mile stretch of beach in front of our base at Jalova. Despite Tortuguero being an otherwise pristine national park, a copious amount of rubbish spews forth from the nearby estuary and washes up on the shore. The result is not only unpleasant to look upon, but presents a dangerous obstacle for the wildlife of the park, especially the nesting turtles. In collaboration with the local rangers with their quad-bike and trailer (which were a godsend), we managed to fill 29 bags of trash that weighed over 400lbs in total.

Staff and volunteers were grateful for the help of the rangers and their quadbike.

Plastic bottles comprised most of our haul, but more exotic items included everything from fridges, a car bonnet, to an entire boat! It was an exhausting effort, requiring nearly 60 man-hours of work in sweltering heat. Despite the arduous effort, it was immensely rewarding when we finished to see the difference we had made to the beach. The rubbish will now be taken to Tortuguero town, where it will be sorted and recycled. The beach is now a much cleaner place for the volunteers and staff, the shore birds, and the nesting turtles, both when the mature females come to lay eggs and when their offspring hatch and make their dash back down to the sea.

I hope we can inspire all readers to celebrate Earth Day in their own way. Either conserve on your power usage or go out and clean up your surrounding area. It would mean a lot to the community and do some good for the environment. Happy Earth Day!

Volunteers clearing the beach often used by jaguars (look carefully and see the prints!)

Intern Voice: Cleaning up our act