The Refuge Beyond the Beach

How WCA’s work benefits the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge

June 2026. By Dr. Vanessa Bézy

Like many of us who have spent time here, I am still in awe of how magical and abundant this place is. There are few places left on earth that still hold this kind of wildlife and ecological richness. I have traveled to and worked in many incredible places, but Ostional is quite simply my favorite place on earth. As a scientist, that feeling of awe only deepened. Early in my career, I worked with sea turtle conservation programs in North

Carolina and on remote beaches in Costa Rica where there were few, if any, turtles. Then I came to Ostional and saw an arribada for the first time. It was mind-blowing. Not just the number of turtles, but the feeling of witnessing something ancient, alive, and globally important.

What has also stayed with me over the years is that the community has always been one of the greatest strengths of conservation here. That is part of what drew me to work in this area in the first place. Ostional is not a perfectly fenced-off place, separated from people. It continues to thrive not only in spite of the surrounding communities, but in many ways because of them. What exists here, in terms of sea turtles and community conservation, is truly unique on a global scale. There are very complex conservation challenges, and it takes an army to get things done, but this community has always been, and continues to be, pivotal.

One of the most important things to understand about the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge is that it does not begin and end at the beach. The refuge is not an island. It is part of an intricate web where everything inside and outside of its geographic limits interacts. Nutrients, energy flow, wildlife, humans, forests, climate, air, and waterways all support one another. These systems are resilient, and the web can withstand some pressure, but every new stress brings it closer to collapse. Water is one of the clearest threads that connects it all. Every living thing depends on water, including us, and when pollution gets into that water, it threatens the base of the whole system.

That is why water quality matters so much to the refuge.

Water pollution does not only appear when someone dumps something directly into a river or the ocean. Much of it is carried by rainfall from uphill and upstream. When a septic tank overflows, it does not just contaminate the area around it. Rainfall can move that pollution through streams, rivers, and eventually to the sea.

Everywhere it reaches, it affects birds, mammals, reptiles, and people using the same water. In that sense, the simple phrase from Finding Nemo is true: all drains lead to the ocean. What happens in the watershed eventually reaches the coast. That means what happens far from the beach can still have a direct impact on the refuge and the wildlife that depends on it.

For sea turtles, poor water quality can affect nearshore habitat quality, prey availability, and disease risk, even if the source of the pollution is far from the nesting beach. Sea turtles also help us understand the bigger picture. Like all species, they are part of a web, and some animals function like keystones. They help keep ecosystems in balance, carry whole communities of organisms on their shells, and even transport nutrients from the sea onto land through their eggs. So when we protect clean water, healthy watersheds, and functioning coastal ecosystems, we are not only protecting one species. We are supporting the health of the whole biosphere.

Our Water Quality program has helped us move from asking a basic question — is our water contaminated? — to understanding much more about where contamination is coming from and when it is most likely to happen. We now know that much of the contamination we are detecting is sewage contamination, along with fecal contamination from dogs and farm animals, much of it originating in and around Nosara. Our data clearly show a higher likelihood of contamination when there is more rainfall, which is why the rainy season is a time to be more cautious. The Nosara River, for example, represents a large watershed where rainfall from many different places is carried to the same point, bringing with it a greater chance of pollution. We also know that excess nutrients can contribute to harmful algal blooms or “red tide”, with consequences for human health, fisheries, and marine ecosystems, and we have experienced those impacts firsthand over the years.

Monitoring has taught us more than where contamination comes from.

It has also shown us why long-term data matters. Without long-term monitoring, people may dismiss pollution as a one-time event, seasonal rumor, or anecdote. Data shows patterns and helps tell us whether solutions are actually improving conditions. Just as importantly, the data is objective. Once the data is there, it becomes much harder to deny the problem, and much easier for people to admit that this is an issue and begin doing what they can to improve it. That shift — from uncertainty or denial to shared understanding and action — is one of the most valuable things this program has made possible.

From a biological perspective, resilient ecosystems are those that continue to function in the face of stress.

That resilience depends on healthy water, biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and functioning food webs. Species like sea turtles and large predators such as jaguars are important indicators because they tell us something about the overall health and diversity of the system. When you lose diversity, you lose resilience and functionality. Pollution, disease, habitat loss, domestic animal interactions, illegal take of sea turtle nests, and climate change do not happen separately. They interact, and together they reduce the chances of survival for the whole system. A healthy ecosystem can absorb stress, but once water quality declines, disease pressure rises, biodiversity falls, and the system becomes less able to handle drought, floods, heat, and development pressure.

We all rely on clean water, clean air, and healthy food systems. Those things are intricately tied to this biosphere web. Caring about the environment is not just a trendy idea. It is a survival issue. For me, that is where research has to become action. Science gives us an objective way to identify problems and test solutions. Without that foundation, we risk spending our limited time and funds on issues that are not priorities or on solutions that do not work. But information alone is not enough. Its value comes from using it to guide action. That is why WCA’s approach connects science, education, and implementation. Water quality monitoring leads to wastewater education, community outreach, and practical solutions like biogardens. The goal is not only to document problems, but to reduce them. And to do that, we do not need just a few people doing everything perfectly. We need all of us doing the best we can.

What gives me optimism is the same thing that has always given me optimism here: the community. What protects the refuge is not only what happens on the beach, but what happens in every yard, septic system, stream, road, and river connected to it. Living sustainably may sound like a huge goal, but if there is anywhere it is possible, it is here, because Ostional and Nosara were fundamentally founded on community participation in conservation. If you want to take action but feel overwhelmed, start small. Visit WCA’s resources at Sustainable Nosara. Pick one area you can improve this year.

Do not focus on being perfect. Focus on doing what feels accessible to you and building from there. That is how conservation grows.