A Costa Rica scientific fin and satellite tagging project recently got underway at Cocos Island mapping its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.
Conservation organizations and marine researchers spent about 30 hours sailing to the island in their pursuit for more knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
Think of what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that, hopefully, will contribute to saving these marvelous animals now sadly endangered in much of their range.
The famous oceanographer, Jacque Yves Cousteau, once described Cocos Island as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, only about 10 square miles in size, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, about halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the tropical palms or beaches that captured the imagination of Captain Cousteau. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have chosen as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. In those waters one finds incomparable treasure: vast numbers of fish, whales, porpoises, and turtles.
Sea turtles have swum the oceans of the world since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex preying on them 200 million years ago when they paddled ashore to nest.
These ancient beings swim all the oceans of the world except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic.
Once, the sheer numbers of marine turtles were so massive that seamen, lost in fog sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Sadly , no more. Today, our unrestrained development of beaches and plundering of their nests have put them at risk. Millions have been in South America to make expensive shoes for Europeans.
Jacque Yves Cousteau presciently said that: "If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect." A being visiting from another world might conclude that such a result would be just.
However, more and more governments and conservation organizations are working to restore at least some turtle populations. International treaties relating to sea turtles are now in place, though many countries still fail to enforce them. Conservation groups, researchers, and scientists have begun tagging ocean roaming turtles in far away places like Cocos Island, the Galapagos, Columbia, and other areas. Some marine turtles are fitted with numbered flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters that are tracked around the clock. It is all part of an effort to track their movements.
We cannot undo the past but the scientists, researchers, and volunteers who are tagging sea turtles have confidence that the future is yet to be inscribed.
Conservation organizations and marine researchers spent about 30 hours sailing to the island in their pursuit for more knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
Think of what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that, hopefully, will contribute to saving these marvelous animals now sadly endangered in much of their range.
The famous oceanographer, Jacque Yves Cousteau, once described Cocos Island as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, only about 10 square miles in size, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, about halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the tropical palms or beaches that captured the imagination of Captain Cousteau. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have chosen as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. In those waters one finds incomparable treasure: vast numbers of fish, whales, porpoises, and turtles.
Sea turtles have swum the oceans of the world since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex preying on them 200 million years ago when they paddled ashore to nest.
These ancient beings swim all the oceans of the world except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic.
Once, the sheer numbers of marine turtles were so massive that seamen, lost in fog sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Sadly , no more. Today, our unrestrained development of beaches and plundering of their nests have put them at risk. Millions have been in South America to make expensive shoes for Europeans.
Jacque Yves Cousteau presciently said that: "If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect." A being visiting from another world might conclude that such a result would be just.
However, more and more governments and conservation organizations are working to restore at least some turtle populations. International treaties relating to sea turtles are now in place, though many countries still fail to enforce them. Conservation groups, researchers, and scientists have begun tagging ocean roaming turtles in far away places like Cocos Island, the Galapagos, Columbia, and other areas. Some marine turtles are fitted with numbered flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters that are tracked around the clock. It is all part of an effort to track their movements.
We cannot undo the past but the scientists, researchers, and volunteers who are tagging sea turtles have confidence that the future is yet to be inscribed.
About the Author:
The author , Victor Krumm, lives in tropical Costa Rica. Follow his lovely site Costa Rica Vacations and for info about great beaches check out Costa Rica Beaches
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