After studying marine biology and spending family vacations in Costa Rica, a Carlsbad woman turned her fascination with sea turtles into an effort to help the endangered animals in the Central American country.

Courtney King, a recent marine biology graduate from U.C. Davis, spent one of her last quarters abroad working on turtle conservation with the nonprofit Costa Rican organization Pretoma.

Based in the idyllic beach community of Playa San Miguel, where howler monkeys and armadillos share the town with fishermen, King helped the organization patrol beaches against turtle poaching and collect eggs into a protected hatchery.

Olive ridley turtles are threatened by consumption of their eggs, which locals believe to be aphrodisiacs, she said.

The 70- to 100-pound turtles nest on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. There conservationists watched for their tracks, which resemble tire tracks.

Each time they found a nesting turtle they would tag her, measure her and place her eggs into a fenced, protected area of marked plots.

When the eggs hatched after 42 to 60 days, they returned the baby turtles safely to the sea.

King's family owns vacation property in Costa Rica, and she had hoped to return to the country to work on a conservation project, she said. Plus, the Carlsbad High School graduate said her mother had instilled a love of sea turtles from an early age.

"My mom absolutely loves sea turtles, so our whole house is decorated in sea turtles," King said. "So growing up with that made me really interested."

King plans to return to Costa Rica on Monday, where she'll continue the conservation project, and also start some research on another species: the endangered hawksbill sea turtle, a 100- to 150-pound turtle prized for its exquisitely patterned shell.

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ENVIRONMENT: Carlsbad woman works to protect turtle nest eggs