Field Freezer Explained and More Updates

Have you ever wondered how we are able to keep our blood samples and other samples that need to be frozen at -20 to -80 in the field cold, especially since we are working in a tropical hot country?

Maybe not, but I am revealing the secret anyways. Liquid nitrogen is the powerful tool. We have two tanks (10L and 3.5L) with a vacuum, which are holding liquid nitrogen for extended periods of time. After about a month, in case of the big tank, we have to drive to the capital of Costa Rica (San Jose) to refill the tank at the local dairy “agro-veterinaria”. Their office close to us used to have LN2 as well, but stopped selling it a few years ago.

We have a small field lab, with a centrifuge and fridge in the house of one of the families we are staying with. There we also have our official headquarters with our chests full of equipment.

Our samples are eventually stored in a -80 freezer at the UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) owned by a collaborating professor (Federico Abertazzi), while awaiting the necessary CITES export and import permits to be transported to the US.

Hence, with our last trip to “Chepe”, as the locals call San Jose, we were able to kill two birds with one stone (or several flies with one fly-swatter) by filling up our tanks, storing samples and also heading to the CONAGEBIO office to check on Brie’s permits. She got to sign a bunch of paperwork, and now we “only” have to wait for several other people to sign it as well.

Things have been good so far, and our sample size is growing constantly.

We have spent another week on the boat and have installed all five radio transmitters. Here I can introduce some of our radio tagged turtles and the person which inspired the name: Estrellita (crush of our local assistant Macdo), Magali (pregnant wife of captain), Rena (Marcus’ Mom), Yamileth (station mom and host mom), and Andreina (daughter’s name of random helper on the beach).

We are listening to our radio tagged turtles every day now, from a mountain close to the station and today we heard everyone but Estrellita.

In between sampling we were able to celebrate Brie’s birthday and went to Samara for a night, and sipped cold “pipas” (unripe, green coconuts), and to Rio Celeste while waiting for signature in Liberia......and relaxed a bit.

LAST MINUTE: The upcoming days we will be heading to the central pacific to sample turtles in Playa Hermosa and Baru, and today we finally got Brie’s CONAGEBIO permit.