A Costa Rica research fin and satellite tagging expedition recently got underway at Cocos Island mapping its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.
Conservationists and marine researchers traveled Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
Imagine what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that, hopefully, will contribute to saving these marvelous marine reptiles now sadly endangered in much of their range.
The famous mariner, Jacque Yves Cousteau, once described Cocos Island as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, less than 10 square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the tropical beaches or palm trees that captured the imagination of the Captain. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have voted as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. It is there that one finds priceless treasure: vast numbers of fish, porpoises, whales and turtles.
Since the age of dinosaurs marine turtles have roamed the Seven Seas of the world.
These ancient creatures swim all the seas of the world except the frozen Arctic and Antarctic.
Once, the sheer numbers of the half dozen species of sea turtles were so huge that seamen, lost in fog sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Alas, those numbers are no more. Today, man's indiscriminate coastline development and wanton destruction of their nests have put these creatures at risk. For many years, millions were slaughtered in South America to make stylish Italian combs, and expensive shoes.
The prescient Captain Cousteau observed 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.
But, some governments and conservationists are working to turn around the decline turtle populations. Conservation groups and scientists have begun tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in remote places like Cocos Island. Some turtles are fitted with satellite transmitters while others bear flipper tags in an effort to monitor their travel patterns and we now know that some species swim thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the deep waters off Canada.
These taggingvolunteers, scientists, and researchers have faith that sea turtles can be around another 200 million years but only if men pay more attention to protecting them than exploiting them.
Conservationists and marine researchers traveled Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
Imagine what they do as a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that, hopefully, will contribute to saving these marvelous marine reptiles now sadly endangered in much of their range.
The famous mariner, Jacque Yves Cousteau, once described Cocos Island as the most beautiful island he had ever visited. The small island, less than 10 square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the tropical beaches or palm trees that captured the imagination of the Captain. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have voted as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. It is there that one finds priceless treasure: vast numbers of fish, porpoises, whales and turtles.
Since the age of dinosaurs marine turtles have roamed the Seven Seas of the world.
These ancient creatures swim all the seas of the world except the frozen Arctic and Antarctic.
Once, the sheer numbers of the half dozen species of sea turtles were so huge that seamen, lost in fog sometimes found land by listening for sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.
Alas, those numbers are no more. Today, man's indiscriminate coastline development and wanton destruction of their nests have put these creatures at risk. For many years, millions were slaughtered in South America to make stylish Italian combs, and expensive shoes.
The prescient Captain Cousteau observed 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.
But, some governments and conservationists are working to turn around the decline turtle populations. Conservation groups and scientists have begun tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in remote places like Cocos Island. Some turtles are fitted with satellite transmitters while others bear flipper tags in an effort to monitor their travel patterns and we now know that some species swim thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the deep waters off Canada.
These taggingvolunteers, scientists, and researchers have faith that sea turtles can be around another 200 million years but only if men pay more attention to protecting them than exploiting them.
About the Author:
Victor Krumm writes about tropical Costa Rica. Visit his popular site Costa Rica Vacations or check out one of Costa Rica's Seven Wonders Cocos Island
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