Young man defender of turtles is killed in Costa Rica

Jairo Mora Sandoval

Last Friday, May 31, a man was found naked and with a mortal blow to the head, near the nape of the neck, his name is Jairo Mora Sandoval, a young environmentalist who was lying on the beach in Moin (Costa Rica), where he spent his days trying to save leatherback turtles of human predation.

On the night of his death, Jairo patrolled the ‘Nueve Millas de Moin’ beach with a Spanish veterinary and three volunteers from United States when he ran into an ambush. They were retained for a few hours, but they took him to assassinate him.

Port of Moin receives each year thousands of foreigners who arrive at their beaches to contemplate the magnificent spectacle of the nocturnal spawning of sea turtles, however, is an area that is invaded by mafias, which steal eggs from turtles to sell them on the black market, as gastronomic delights, or as prepared food with alleged male invigorating properties.

To avoid this, the 26-year-old man endeavored to reach nests before the looters, and thus rescue the eggs to make them safe in a hatchery, to return a few months later to the ocean to the newly hatched turtles.

For Mora, tropical biology student and collaborator of the NGO Widecast, the defense of the turtles in the Costa Rican Caribbean was reason enough to risk his life,  he had been threatened repeatedly, until he was killed and his crime still remains unpunished.