renato bruno, a biologist based in tortuguero, has found the remains of a turtle. d and butchered for meat. renato: the turtles that nest in costa rica migrate to their feeding grounds on the caribbean coast of nicaragua. green sea turtles are also illegally hunted on the coast there. they kill up to 15,000 turtles a year. reporter: but it's not just the animals themselves that are at risk from poaching. during the night and early morning, poachers are on the prowl for clutches of eggs. scientists keep finding nests that have been looted. keylor: this is the situation we face every night. although we monitor most of the beach, there's not enough staff to prevent this kind of thing completely. wherever we're patrolling, they just raid nests somewhere else. they poke the sand with sticks to feel for resistance, that's when they know the stick has hit some eggs at the bottom of a nest pit. once they find the eggs, they dig them up. reporter: the turtle eggs are usually eaten raw. they're believed to be an aphrodisiac, although there's no scientific evidence. turtle egg