Turtle protection groups, including the conservancy, lobbied for legislation that would offer clear protection for sea turtles, better monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, including financial penalties. It was already illegal under Panamanian law to take sea turtles and their eggs from national parks and protected marine areas, Godfrey said, but it was unclear whether doing so was prohibited outside of those places and the law was sparsely enforced. It became a crisis - at one beach, up to 90% of leatherback eggs were being taken, he said. When the pandemic halted ecotourism, people who lost their main source of income began harvesting sea turtle eggs and some nesting turtles to sell for meat and their shells, said David Godfrey, executive director of the Florida-based conservancy. “We will be able to hold governments, corporations, and public citizens legally accountable for violations of the rights of sea turtles.” The new law “will allow any Panamanian citizen to be the voice of sea turtles and defend them legally,” Veelenturf said in a text message as she boarded a plane to Panama City after her group’s work near Armila. The students worked under the guidance of Callie Veelenturf, who founded a group that works to protect leatherback turtles and pushed for a new law in Panama that guarantees sea turtles the legal right to live and have free passage in a healthy environment. Nearby, armed members of the National Border Service stood watch for protection in an area known for drug trafficking. On a Panamanian beach long after dark, a group of undergraduate students dug into the sand to excavate a sea turtle nest, their lamps casting a soft red glow as they studied eggs, inventoried the success of the hatch and checked for any surviving hatchlings stuck at the bottom of the nest.

Franco payne