When in 1989 John Denham created what is today the Pacuare Reserve, the poaching rate was close to 98%. Poachers walked the beach freely looking for sea turtle eggs and adults, the early efforts at beach protection were not effective. In 1992 we built the Casa Grande which became the base for the volunteer program. Alexandra Denham, daughter of the founder, was in charge of the Reserve and the turtle program in 1994 and 1995. Volunteers were recruited in San Jose by advertising and flyers (there was no internet) and they were of all ages and nationalities, some came for two weeks, others for the whole season. People slept in the bedrooms, in tents on the balcony and under the house, and everyone cooked, cleaned and walked the beach. 

 

At this point we were joined by Stanley Rodriguez, a lifelong turtle ‘aficionado’ and a professional in turtle protection, who became the manager of the Reserve. Soon afterwards we started employing beach guards and poaching was reduced. 1995 is the year from which we date the effective protection of the beach. Stanley remained with us for several years and then started his own turtle conservation project, Estación Las Tortugas, a few hundred meters to the east of the Reserve, from which his family and volunteers now patrol and protect the 3 km of beach adjoining our eastern boundary. 

 

From 1991 when the beach monitoring became standardized we have recruited every season 8 to 10 research assistants besides the two main coordinators to help gathering all the data for the sea turtle monitoring program. All this combined effort has lead to a decrease on the poaching rate to almost 1% (mainly at the beginning and the end of the season).

 

The Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) season starts at the end of February and last until mid July with nesting females but the hatching period can last until September. Although there are not many green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting in Pacuare, they start coming in July until the end of September. Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) can nest any time throughout the full season however it's a rare sighting since the beach characteristics are not suitable for them.​