Unraveling the mystery of mass-nesting sea turtles

All of the sea turtles in our experiment are caught by hand using a well-established technique, termed the "turtle rodeo technique" [Limpus, 1985].

In the offshore waters of Ostional, Costa Rica sea turtles often float and "sunbathe" at the surface in large aggregations, making it especially easy to find and catch turtles.

We look for sea turtles that are floating at the surface and slowly approach them in our boat. My assistant approaches the sea turtle in the water and captures it by holding its carapace, or shell, in the front and back. By lifting the turtle’s head and flippers out of the water, we can safely bring it towards the boat while ensuring it can breathe.

The olive ridley's are so relaxed, that sometimes my assistant can calmly swim the turtle towards the boat just by holding its flipper!

For an in-water look at just how many turtles there are and how exactly we can safely capture a turtle, watch this video:

All of our methodology has been approved and permitted by Costa Rica (ACT-OR-DR-048-15) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of UNC-Chapel Hill (IACUC 15-220.0-A).