SPC Veterinary Technology students will help sea turtles in the beautiful waters off the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. Our partner organization helps sea turtles through conservation, research, sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation. This organization is composed of an expert network of biologists, managers, community leaders and educators who are committed to the recovery and sustainable management of sea turtle populations that are dangerously low in number.

Their project in the Osa Peninsula will offer SPC veterinary technology students a unique opportunity to help with a scientific study involving Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles. The students will assist with in-water research that is conducted by the research team to assess the threats that sea turtles are exposed to in the area. Turtles will be carefully captured and tagged, and samples collected before the turtles are released once again into the ocean.

The facility also houses a Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre where sick and injured turtles are cared for and eventually returned to the wild. When not participating in the turtle research and rehabilitation aspects of the project, SPC students will help restore lost habitat through a mangrove restoration program. Osa Peninsula hosts a large variety of tropical ecosystems, providing habitats to animals like scarlet macaws, monkeys, sloths, wild cats and other wildlife. The beaches, mangroves and estuaries are home to sea turtles, dolphins, and at certain times even whales and whale sharks.

For full details visit: http://www.spcollege.edu/CostaRica_vet/