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Tourists taking #TurtleSelfies prevent sea turtles from laying eggs

(Photo: Facebook)

A mass of weary, tired and pregnant female sea turtles found themselves surrounded by strangers of a different species in Costa Rica this weekend.

Authorities at Ostional Wildlife Refuge, a national park on the West coast, reported that tourists swarmed the beaches to witness hundreds of turtles emerging from the water onto the sands. The national police had to be called to aid park rangers, but the crowd was too large to be controlled and the chaos ensued.

Tourists were sitting their children atop the pregnant animals, using their camera flashes and wading into the shallows to pose for turtle selfies.

“So many people were on the beach that some turtles returned without completing the nesting process”, Leonel Delgado, secretary of the Union of Workers of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy, told La Nacion. “That certainly is a negative impact”.

The Costa Rican authorities have said they plan to address the issue by allowing only experienced and licensed tour guides to access the beach.

It’s not just interacting with the animals that has a negative effect. Their interaction with the beach itself is damaging to turtle numbers, which are in a fragile state with an estimated 93 percent being lost.

The seven percent of eggs that had to survive and hatch, have a long journey ahead of them needing to avoid predators, getting tangled in sea weed or garbage and making it to the sea safely under cover of darkness.

The area usually sees it’s heaviest rainfall this time of year making access to the beach nearly impossible when rivers swell and sandbanks turn to mud. Due to a dry year, access has not been cut off yet, allowing more tourists to flood in.