Light pollution on a leatherback sea turtle nesting beach by Jessica Castro-Prieto / National Wildlife Refuge Association
Puerto Rico has taken some of the most forceful steps of any U.S. jurisdiction to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. On March 16, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez Garced, ordered the closure of schools, beaches, public parks, and all nonessential businesses. She also ordered residents to stay home and imposed a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. In the previous emergency decree that began on March 31 and ran through April 12, the curfew was broadened from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. and all grocery stores were shut down on Sundays. In addition, restrictions were put in place on what days of the week cars could circulate, depending on their license plate. As of April 11th, that curfew has now been extended through May 3rd.
Jessica conducting leatherback sea turtle nest surveys with her daughters
These mandates put a hold on our new project to restore nesting beaches for leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in Puerto Rico. This project was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and was just starting when the state of emergency was decreed. Many activities of the project scheduled for this first semester, including a light pollution workshop and the construction of a greenhouse, were postponed but will take place as soon as the mandate ends. However, other activities that are tied to seasonality are more affected by the mandates and missing “the right season”, would represent a one-year delay that would affect the project outcomes. For example, seeds and seedlings availability is high in this time of the year, and leatherbacks nesting season and surveys occur from April to June. In spite of the constraints, I am working on the project where possible. I have even enlisted my family in helping to collect and plant seeds that will eventually grow to plants that we will re-plant on nesting beaches to reduce erosion and as natural fences to avoid road kills. So far, we have collected and planted more than 600 seedling and seeds. In addition, authorized volunteers, myself, and personnel of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources are conducting surveys in most of the nesting beaches, in solitude and carrying a special permit. To date, we know of 160 leatherback nests, but probably this number underestimates the total activity as surveys are being conducted less frequently and not all the nesting beaches are been monitored. The total number of nests reported so far is similar to previous years.
However, if mandates last several more weeks, we risk losing nesting information for nesting females and probably hatching success. Although fewer threats to turtles and nests would be expected due to less human activity on the nesting beaches during these times, cases of sand extractions, trash accumulation, more vehicles patrolling the beaches, bonfires, and light pollution have been reported in nesting beaches during the quarantine. In addition, recent storm surges have caused erosion of some nests and one nesting female got stranded, and later rescued by tourists. Despite all of this, the leatherbacks continue to nest on our beaches and this appears to be a successful season for this ancient reptile, there are still several threats that must be eliminated from nesting beaches in Puerto Rico.