Protecting Manatees In Costa Rica
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Katie receives instruction on the use of side scan sonar technology from Tortuguero National Park staff. This technology is being used in several areas of Central and South America for detecting manatees in murky waters. (Photo by Carlos Espinosa.)
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By Katie Tripp, Ph.D.
Director of Science & Conservation,
Save the Manatee Club
In February 2012, I traveled to Costa Rica to visit manatee habitat along the country’s entire Caribbean coast. Save the Manatee Club has previously worked with Fundacion Trichechus, a Costa Rican nonprofit organization working to protect manatees and their habitat, by assisting with education and outreach initiatives.
My guide on this trip was Carlos Espinosa from Fundacion Trichechus. Carlos and I traveled from San Rafael de Heredia, where the Foundation’s office is located, to Tortuguero National Park on the northern Caribbean coast. From there, we traveled even further north, visiting the REBACO protected area, and Puerto Lindo, near the Nicaraguan border. After a brief return to Tortuguero, we continued south to Moin and Cahuita National Park, then to Puerto Viejo, Manzanillo, Gandoca, and Sixaola — all the way to the Panamanian border. At each stop, we met with local biologists and conservation managers to discuss manatee conservation initiatives in these various regions.
Historically, Tortuguero National Park was the region where most manatee observations occurred, but as tourism-related vessel traffic has increased on the river, manatee sightings have steadily decreased. Protected areas like REBACO show promise as manatee habitat and would benefit from additional protections. In Puerto Lindo, Carlos, and I joined Jorge, a staff member of Tortuguero National Park (and the group’s skilled boat driver), to meet with a couple who own a small fishing resort located on a bluff. From their vantage point, they report frequent manatee sightings — perhaps several each month. They worry about the manatees and the
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fast-moving transport boats ferrying both goods and people — particularly during the dry season when the river is shallower and narrower, leaving less room for the safe passage of manatees.
Perhaps the most promising area for sighting manatees is in the southern reaches of Costa Rica, in the sea. Manatees have been documented by fishermen and surfers from Cahuita to Sixaola. While no manatees were seen on this trip, there is certainly adequate habitat for them throughout Costa Rica’s east coast, and a coordinated sighting network and enhanced education initiatives could increase the number of sightings reported and shed light on the manatees’ abundance and distribution in this country where they are referred to as “ghosts.”
With increasing development pressures, boat traffic, and potential for climate change impacts, additional conservation measures are needed. By the end of the trip, a list of conservation priorities had been developed for each key area identified within Costa Rica. Fundacion Trichechus and Save the Manatee Club will continue working cooperatively to secure funding for these identified needs. (If you would like to help, please click here to Donate Now to our International Rescue Fund. See below for donations by mail.) The Club will also lend its expertise to addressing some of Costa Rica’s most pressing manatee conservation issues.
Get More Info!
- If you would like to contribute to the SMC's efforts in Costa Rica, please Donate Now to our International Rescue Fund. You can also send a donation by mail to Save the Manatee Club, 500 N. Maitland Ave., Suite 210, Maitland, FL 32751. Be sure to note that you would like the donation to go toward efforts in Costa Rica.
- See Sirenians of the World
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