Idiot Tourists Block Endangered Sea Turtles from Laying Eggs

In yet another example of tourists being the absolute worst, a mob of gawking jackasses interrupted hundreds of sea turtles as they attempted to lay their eggs on a beach in Costa Rica's Ostional Wildlife Refuge. Ugh.

Although the area's normally inaccessible this time of year due to heavy rainfall, an unusually dry season enabled the horde of selfie-popping holiday makers to storm the beach and watch as the turtles did what turtles do. But they didn't just watch: no, many of them waded right up to the turtles as they swam up the beach, snapping photos with their flash on, and some even sat their kids on top of them for a "cute" photo. 

Facebook/SITRAMINAE-MINAE Workers Union

As you'd expect, this swarm of simpletons was pretty disruptive to the whole "peacefully laying eggs" thing, and some of the turtles returned to the sea without dropping off their prenatal payload. As a local official said to the Costa Rican news outlet La Nacion, "That certainly is a negative impact."

Why wasn't the area protected, if it was on a wildlife refuge? Well, it actually was: park rangers (and even the police) attempted to put a stop to the madness, but because the crowd was so massive, they weren't able to re-establish order before the damage was done.

Pro tip: if you're visiting Costa Rica, maybe just stay the fuck away from the sea turtles.


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Gianni Jaccoma is a staff writer for Thrillist, and he hopes these people fall into the alligator pit at the zoo. Follow his furious tweets @gjaccoma, and send your news tips to news@thrillist.com