Record numbers of newborn leatherback turtles in recent months have been crawling across Junquillal beach on Costa Rica's Pacific coast thanks to a community effort to fend off poachers, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Junquillal is an important leatherback nesting area but is not state-protected as is Playa Grande, the giant migratory turtle's principal Central American nesting zone.

WWF said 886 leatherbacks – baulas in Spanish – have spawned, making the 2007-08 season the most fruitful in years for this six-kilometer-long beach, which is patrolled every night by six young people who form the organization Baula Boys.

This season Junquillal “has probably become the second most important beach for leatherback turtles to nest in Central America, due to not only the number of nests but also the success in the number of birth of young turtles,” Gabriel Francia, coordinator of the WWF's Pacific leatherback turtle conservation project, said in a statement.

During the patrols, from October to March, 24 nests were found and protected, and only one nest was reported sacked.

“We used to take the eggs to eat them. Now we protect them,” said Wilmar Gutiérrez, a proud Baula Boy. “Our dream is to one day see here dozens of turtles laying eggs in one night, and that visitors that come here leave with a good impression of Junquillal.”