This week, El Salvador registered new cases of dead sea turtles on beaches along the Pacific coast. The same thing had happened at the end of October and the beginning of November, when at least 300 sea turtles were found dead. The site of the discovery is in the Bay of Jiquilisco, in the department of Usulután, in the south of the country.
At that time, through laboratory tests, authorities and specialists determined that the turtles had died due to the proliferation of toxins that reached the Salvadoran coast after Selma Storm, which affected part of Central America at the end of October.
However, the situation would not reach Costa Rica. The oceanographer Omar Lizano said that the currents of our region tend to move towards the north of the continent.
In this area the equatorial marine countercurrent influences, which moves from west to east. During certain moments, with the presence of phenomena such as El Niño, it intensifies in the Pacific Ocean. The pattern is clear, so the probability is very low.
Didiher Chacón, director of Widecast (Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network), mentioned that there would be risk if marine currents are mobilized and bring toxic algae. Even so, he commented that if the conditions are present in El Salvador, there would be a possibility that during the summer some substance will reach these waters.