Sea Turtle and Ray Research Volunteer (Costa Rica)

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Role Overview

As a marine conservation volunteer, you will assist in ongoing sea turtle and ray monitoring projects. This will include:

• Working side-by-side with local community members to conduct night patrols of the beach.
• Looking for nesting sea turtles.
• Collecting data and tagging the turtles.
• Monitoring the local ray populations by snorkeling and collecting data on the species, and occasionally tagging them to better understand their migratory patterns.
• Possibly sea grass and coral reef monitoring.

Schedule

Your time will be divided among the activities and each day will vary. For example, ray, sea grass, and reef monitoring take place in the morning, about 8am-12pm. Sea turtle monitoring will take place at night, about 9:30pm-1am. Your exact schedule will depend on the weather conditions and needs at that time.

Requirements

• Basic level of Spanish
• A genuine passion for animal conservation
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team
• Flexibility in work schedules and tasks to accommodate day to day needs of a local institution
• Physical ability to work outdoors with potentially high sun, element, and temperature exposure
• Ability to independently collect and register data

Term

We encourage all volunteers to stay as long as possible to maximize local and personal benefit. Minimum stay is 1 week, maximum is 12 weeks.

Accommodation

You will live with a Costa Rican family near the center of town. They will cook all of your meals for you and can adapt based on your dietary preferences. Staying with a family is a great way to learn about Costa Rican culture, eat typical food, and practice your Spanish!