Dear Wildlife Conservation Community,
We're incredibly excited to share some updates with you on everything we've been up to since our last newsletter. It has been such a pleasure to get back out in the field, host activities, and share our work in-person with the community AND we continue to add more activities and events to our calendar as our community is re-adapting post-COVID.
Thank you for supporting our work!
Program Updates
Water Quality
So far this year, we've conducted 24 weeks of testing for fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria and analyzed a total of 132 samples. Since the start of the rainy season, bacteria levels have skyrocketed orders of magnitude above the acceptable limits in the Nosara River. Sites in Guiones (Palm Tree and Baker's Beach) have also failed to pass water quality standards on several occasions already, specifically after heavy rainfall events in May and June. Get all the details in our latest report!
To address water quality issues, we hosted two events in March to share information and resources with the community. In collaboration with Ridge to Reefs, we also submitted applications to the Inter-American Foundation and Ford Environmental Grants to fund several years of capacity training and installations of nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment in Nosara. Learn more about this program and stay updated with the latest results on Swim Guide, Blue Water Task Force and Instagram Stories.
Biodiversity
We're thrilled to announce that we've installed 14 camera traps in Ostional, Nosara, and Esperanza over the last few months and will be installing 2 more very soon. We review footage on a monthly basis and the photos are uploaded to the iNaturalist project page so you can follow along and share in our excitement. We've already made over 200 observations of 23 different species, including an Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)! Our citizen science database also continues to grow and now has over 7,500 observations of over 1,400 different species.
In April and June we hosted two interns from the French Museum of Natural History, who helped us promote the use of iNaturalist in the community. With their leadership we hosted an event at Harmony Hotel and as a result our Wildlife ID guide is now featured at several hotels and local stores. Make sure to keep an eye out for those! We also had the opportunity to lead a nature walk as a part of the Nosara Environmental Festival in June, which we organized in collaboration with other local organizations. Learn more about this program and get access to our Ocean-Friendly Guide. Follow us on social media to see our campaign to promote sustainable living in the area!
Sea Turtles & Marine Life
In May we received the parts to repair the marine buoy to monitor temperature and other oceanographic variables. Unfortunately, the harmful algal bloom event (also known as red tide) that started last December is still lingering and visibility has been too poor for us to retrieve the part still attached to the anchor. We are crossing our fingers conditions clear so we can move forward with our plans to re-install in collaboration with local fishing communities. In the meantime, sea turtle nesting is picking up so we are focusing on monitoring and working with local guides to support sustainable sea turtle tourism in the area.
Check out some of our camera trap observations!
Clockwise from top left: a Spotted paca (Cuniculus paca), a family of White-nosed coatis (Nasua narica), and a male White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).
Your Support Can Take Us Even Further!
We are so pleased to be back in full operation this year, hosting activities and sharing our research results with the community. Our work is more meaningful when we can involve citizen scientists and collaborate with other organizations and institutions, but this also requires more investment of time and resources.
This work is made possible by your generous contributions! Thank you!