Each and every year turtles come onto the beaches of Costa Rica to lay their eggs. Although collecting and selling sea turtle eggs is legal in this area, people are only permitted to do so during the first three days of each nesting period.

Tourists were seen taking selfies with the turtles, letting their children ride them and using camera flashes as the turtles tried to make their way onto the the shore to lay their eggs on the Ostional Wildlife Refuse in Guancaste.

Tourists get close to the turtles coming ashore.

“So many people were on the beach that some turtles returned without completing the nesting process”, Leonel Delgado, secretary of the Union of Workers of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy, told La Nacion.

Arribada means arrival by sea in Spanish and it takes place on a large scale in Costa Rica.

This year the September 6 arribadas fell on a weekend, and the weather was unusually fine, leading to the higher-than-normal crowds.

The Costa Rican authorities have said they plan to address the issue by allowing only experienced and licensed tour guides to access the beach.

The turtles have a conservation status of “vulnerable”.