Tortuguero means “region of turtles” in Spanish. In Costa Rica, it is the name of a marvelous national park on the Caribbean side of the country. Tortuguero is an appropriate name for a place that is the nesting ground for four of the world’s eigh species of green sea turtles: Leatherback, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead, and Hawksbill. The Loggerhead is the world’s largest hard-shelled sea turtle. Loggerheads are threatened due to poaching and accidental entanglement in fishing nets. There haven’t been any recent sightings of turtles that have grown to their largest size, but in the past, individuals that weighed more than 1,000 pounds were recorded. Average size of mature adults these days is about 375 pounds. That is still a very large turtle.

They come to Costa Rica to lay their eggs. Summer is the season of the turtle’s return. For the next few months, the turtles will be floating and mating off of the coast. At night, the females come on to land to dig nests. A single turtle can deposit between 60 and 80 eggs in a nest and will leave additional clutches in a few days. The average female lays 3 to 6 clutches. The length of incubation varies, partly due to the temperature of the sand, but in 7 to 10 weeks, the eggs hatch.

The real adventure begins with the hatching. The little turtles make a dash for the surf, but only a small percentage makes it to the relative safety of the water. Crawling across the sand makes the tiny turtles easy prey for crabs and predatory birds.

Once in the water, the turtles participate in a transoceanic migration that covers thousands of miles. When they are mature, they return to the place of their birth to mate and lay eggs. It takes two to four years for a turtle to make the migration and return. Only about on in 4,000 hatchlings lives long enough to return to the beach.

A recent study of sea turtles, conducted by a team from the University of North Carolina led by Kenneth J. Lohmann, found that sea turtles are born with internal regional maps imprinted into their brains. If the turtles were to die out in a particular nesting area, they could not be replaced because relocated turtles would be completely lost.

The turtles have become one of the symbols of Costa Rica.

There are many stories about turtles in the country. One legend says that Tortuguero Hill, an extinct volcano, is actually a giant turtle that lures the other turtles back each year.

In another story there once was a man on a boat along the coast of Costa Rica. He was traveling to Tortuguero to pick up supplies when it began to storm. He didn’t want to turn back, because he needed supplies. However, he knew that it was too dangerous to approach the coast during the storm. Near the shore he would surely capsize in the waves. Not knowing what to do, the man looked down into the water and saw a green sea turtle breach the choppy water beside his boat. Knowing where the turtle would go, the man attached his supply list to the turtle’s shell. The turtle continued to its nesting grounds in Tortuguero, where the man’s son found the list and sent the goods to him the next day.

I do not know the origins of the legends of sea turtles in Costa Rica. They do, however, have an important function in the area because they point out the relationship between humans and turtles. We need each other. We need to live in a world where sea turtles thrive. The very environmental factors that sustain the turtles also provide for the human inhabitants of this planet.

Turtles are often depicted as easygoing, patient and wise creatures. Due to their long lifespan and slow movement, they are an emblem of longevity and stability in many cultures. It probably doesn’t hurt that their skin has a wrinkly appearance, either. The Lakota refer to the North American continent as Turtle Island. The Cree have a story of a turtle saving humans in a time of catastrophic flood. All around the world various cultures have turtle symbols, stories, and poems. Turtles figure prominently in several different ancient creation stories. They have become the poster illustrations for the movement to care for the marine environment.

This morning, as I was scanning the headlines, thinking of a topic for today’s blog, I was struck by the prevalence of human-caused troubles in the news. The trial of Ratko Mladic on war crimes has been adjourned because of significant prosecutorial errors. Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and his family are awaiting the issuance of their passports so they can leave China even as stories of violence against relatives surface. Turmoil in Greece and its wider effects loom over the opening of the G-8 summit at Camp David. The US House of Representatives appears to be heading for another “game of chicken” over the federal debt and budget. The losses at JP Morgan Chase may have been under reported and may have fueled faster deterioration in the credit market.

Meanwhile in Costa Rica, it is “Pura Vida.” The turtles are hatching and making their dash to the sea. The sun is warming the beach and the sand is warming the tiny eggs. The turtles are back and once again beating the odds. The old men are gathering in the corner bodegas and telling their stories. If they are beginning to learn wisdom, they younger clerks will listen again to the same old story of the man and the fishing boat and the note tied to the turtle. Even though the story has been retold so many times that it is memorized, it contains a bit of the culture of the land. Decades from now that young clerk will himself be an old man who will tell the story over and over simply because he cannot imagine Costa Rica without the story and he wants to make sure that someone remembers it to tell to future generations. They may not remember the subtle lessons and meanings that come from the story, but they do remember the story. And that is enough.

And the turtles that survived the 1 in 4,000 odds to reach maturity will loll off of the coast and perhaps munch on a few of the crabs to marginally improve the odds for the new generation, running the gauntlet on the beach. Life goes on even when we are distracted.

I am grateful I have news of the turtles in Costa Rica to offset the news of human folly from the rest of the world.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.