Where: Gandoca-Manzanillo Sea Turtle Project
What: Association ANAI is a small non-profit organisation that was formed in 1978 to pursue what has since become known as sustainable development in Costa Rica's Talamanca region.

Talamanca, located in the southeast corner of the country is the poorest of Costa Rica's regions in socio-economic terms but the richest in terms of biodiversity and remaining tropical forest ecosystems.
The mission of ANAI is to help the people of Talamanca design and implement a strategy linking socio-economic development, cultural strengthening and biodiversity conservation.

This placement needs volunteers because the community members on their own cannot handle the amount of work needed to protect the numbers of sea turtles which nest at Gandoca. As well, because the town is so remote there are few economic opportunities, so having people coming to the community helps to support the economy of the town.

Working with the turtles is a brilliant and unforgettable experience and we really need your help. It is estimated that if the current rate of decline is not stopped the Leatherback Sea Turtle will be extinct within 20 years.

Volunteer duties:
Task 1. The main work of the volunteers involves night patrols and hatchery shifts. There are two nightly patrols, from 8:00 to 12 midnight to 4:00 a.m. where a shift of volunteers led by an experience patrol leader walk a sector of the 11 km beach searching for nesting females.
Once a turtle is encountered on a night patrol the volunteers work directly with the turtle, taking carapace and nest dimension measurements, collecting eggs and tagging the rear flipper of the turtle.
The collected eggs are then relocated on the beach or taken to the hatchery, where the volunteers on shift will build a new nest to specification and transplant the eggs. The number of eggs, nest location and turtle identification information (tag number) is then recorded by the hatchery attendant for further data analysis including hatchling survival rate.

Task 2. Other daytime work at the project in Gandoca may involve beach cleanup.

Task 3. Small projects, including initial construction of the hatcheries.

Task 4. Caring of the hatcheries. The approximate incubation time for leatherback Turtle eggs is 60 days, therefore midway through the season, the duties of the hatchery attendants increases as the hatchlings are encountered they must be counted and released in the evening to an appropriate location along the high tide line and watched until they reach the sea. We should not release the hatchlings directly on the sea.

For more information about other Volunteer Abroad placements contact your local Adventure Travel Company office or visit Volunteer Abroad.

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Volunteer Abroad is owned by the Canadian Federation of Students (a not-for-profit student organization founded in 1981 that currently unites more than 450,000 colleges and students across Canada). As part of this student movement, Volunteer Abroad connects motivated people with not-for-profit organizations, communities and government agencies in need of assistance around the world.

Participants come from all types of backgrounds. Students have integrated their volunteering efforts into their curriculum earning credits at their university, college or high school, while others have been professionals, gap year students or recent retirees looking to take some time off and offer their skills and knowledge to those who need it.
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Countries where programs are available: Nepal, Ghana, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru
Placement types: Teaching, Social, Building, Conservation, Medical
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