Are Costa Rica’s Beaches Safe?

The awful news about the murder of Costa Rican sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval has shocked the world. Jairo was a brave young conservationist working hard to protect an important leatherback turtle nesting beach called Moin Beach, near the port city of Limon on the Caribbean coast. The beach was well-known both as a place for poachers to collect turtle eggs and a key location for drugs to enter Costa Rica. Along with Jairo, four volunteers from the US and Spain were locked into an abandoned house and robbed (they later escaped unharmed).

Many people come to Costa Rica’s beaches each year to see sea turtles nesting or to volunteer with conservation programs. These visitors and volunteers are critical to the success of local organizations, providing both manpower and funding to continue their work. We connect more than 100 people each year to turtle projects with no incidents. With this recent news, many people now want to know whether its safe to go to Costa Rica.

Most of the country’s beaches do not face the danger that exists at Moin Beach. The majority of turtle nesting beaches in the country are remote with few people living nearby and are not used for transporting drugs. While poaching exists across the country due to a lack of enforcement by government authorities, in most places the people that collect the eggs do so away from researchers and conservationists that patrol the beaches. Its rare for a poacher to confront a conservationist and most turtle projects have safety measures in place to make sure that the beaches are safe and only Costa Ricans interact with local residents on the beach at night.

Costa Rica’s sea turtles need the help of volunteers and tourists now more than ever. Its always a good idea to check with the organizations that run the conservation programs to see what safety measures they have in place and what the current situation is as well as with the State Department. We are confident that the beaches where we send people are safe and would not put anyone in danger by organizing a trip or recommending a place that might not be safe.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.