A Costa Rica satellite tagging expedition recently got underway at Cocos Island involving its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.
Marine researchers traveled Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for migration habits about these ancient marine animals.
Consider what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that maybe will contribute to preserving these marvelous marine reptiles now sadly endangered in much of their range.
Cocos Island was described by the famous oceanographer, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, just nine square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica, about halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the lovely sunsets and beaches that captured the imagination of the Captain. 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: huge numbers of fish, whales, porpoises, and turtles.
Sea turtles have been roaming the oceans since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine the mighty T Rex preying on them 200 million years ago when they went ashore to nest.
These ancient creatures are found in all the seas of the world except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic.
Once, the populations of green sea turtle, hawksbill, leatherback and other species were so seemingly limitless that mariners, lost in the fog, sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Sadly , no more. Today, our unrestrained beach development and robbing of their nests have put them at risk. Millions have been in South America to make expensive shoes for Europeans.
The prescient Captain Cousteau remarked 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 planet might conclude that such a result would be just.
However, international conservation organizations are trying to turn around the decline 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 animals 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 travel patterns.
We cannot undo the past but the men and women who tag sea turtles have confidence that we are not condemned to its repetition.
Marine researchers traveled Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for migration habits about these ancient marine animals.
Consider what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that maybe will contribute to preserving these marvelous marine reptiles now sadly endangered in much of their range.
Cocos Island was described by the famous oceanographer, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, just nine square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica, about halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the lovely sunsets and beaches that captured the imagination of the Captain. 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: huge numbers of fish, whales, porpoises, and turtles.
Sea turtles have been roaming the oceans since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine the mighty T Rex preying on them 200 million years ago when they went ashore to nest.
These ancient creatures are found in all the seas of the world except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic.
Once, the populations of green sea turtle, hawksbill, leatherback and other species were so seemingly limitless that mariners, lost in the fog, sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Sadly , no more. Today, our unrestrained beach development and robbing of their nests have put them at risk. Millions have been in South America to make expensive shoes for Europeans.
The prescient Captain Cousteau remarked 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 planet might conclude that such a result would be just.
However, international conservation organizations are trying to turn around the decline 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 animals 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 travel patterns.
We cannot undo the past but the men and women who tag sea turtles have confidence that we are not condemned to its repetition.
About the Author:
The author, Victor Krumm lives in tropical Costa Rica. Follow his lovely site Costa Rica Vacations and for info about marine turtles check out Sea Turtles
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