On the Pacific coast of Costa Rica three beaches, including Playa Grande, support a major nesting colony of leatherback turtles. Real-estate developers are now threatening to develop the beach, further jeopardizing the survival of the leatherback turtle, a creature whose ancestors survived the age of dinosaurs.

The leatherback is the largest turtle reaching a shell length of 1.7 m and a mass of 700 kg. In 1980 it numbered over 115,000 adult females, but it now numbers less than 25,000 worldwide and is close to extinction in the Pacific Ocean.

If these beaches are lost to the leatherbacks, this species will go extinct in the Pacific Ocean.