--- description: Too busy taking photos and petting the reptiles to notice they were disrupting breeding title: Tourists Get in the Way of Sea Turtles Laying Eggs in Costa Rica image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Costa Rica](/tag/costa-rica/) ## Costa Rica Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Tourists Get in the Way of Sea Turtles Laying Eggs in Costa Rica by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2015 2:31 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2015 2:31 PM CUT A large group of tourists disrupted sea turtles from laying their eggs on a beach in Costa Rica last weekend, according to local news sources. Every year hundreds of sea turtles journey to a wildlife refuge in Guanacaste, Costa Rica in order to lay their eggs. This year, though, tourists were able to access the refuge because droughts have lowered water levels that usually make the area inaccessible to people. The tourists reportedly took photos, touched the turtles and stood on their nests, forcing several to return to the ocean without laying their eggs, according to _La Nacion_. Costa Rica’s Secretary of Environment is investigating why officials were unable to control the tourists. \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/18/tourist-sea-turtles-costa-rica-eco-tourism-nesting/72386234/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/"},"headline":"Tourists Get in the Way of Sea Turtles Laying Eggs in Costa Rica","datePublished":"2015-09-18T14:31:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:03:40.476Z","description":"Too busy taking photos and petting the reptiles to notice they were disrupting breeding","url":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/","keywords":["Costa Rica","Tourism","eggs","beach"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/costa-rica/","name":"Costa Rica"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/","name":"Tourists Get in the Way of Sea Turtles Laying Eggs in Costa Rica"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"In 45 Years, We've Lost Nearly Half The Ocean's Animals","description":"A new report from the World Wildlife Fund shows overexploitation and climate change pose a greater risk to the world's oceans than ever before.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DBnrlQo5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-17T13:25:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DBnrlQo5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/","duration":"PT1M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4040062/tourists-costa-rica-sea-turtles/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```