A Costa Rica scientific fin and satellite tagging expedition recently got underway at Cocos Island mapping its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.
Marine researchers sailed Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
They are engaged in a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that they hope will contribute to saving these marvelous animals now endangered in much of their range.
Cocos Island was described by the famous oceanographer, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever encountered. The small island, just nine square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the pretty palm trees or beaches that captured the imagination of the Captain. Its beauty lies off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have voted one of the Seven Wonders of Cost Rica. It is there that one finds incomparable treasure: huge numbers of fish, whales and porpoises and turtles.
Sea turtles have been roaming the oceans since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine the mighty T Rex feeding on them 200 million years ago when they paddled ashore to lay their eggs.
The mighty Tyrannosaurus fed on them more than 200 million years ago as they went ashore to lay their eggs on ancient beaches.
These ancient beings swim all the seas on the globe except the frozen Arctic and Antarctic.
However, those numbers are no more. Today, man's unrestrained coastline development and wanton robbing of their nests have put these creatures at risk. For many years, millions were slaughtered in South America to make expensive Italian shoes.
Jacque Yves 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."
But, world conservation organizations are working to restore at least some turtle populations. Conservation groups and researchers have begun tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in remote places like Cocos Island. Some animals are fitted with flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters in an effort to track their migration patterns and we now know that some species roam across thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the cold and deep waters off Newfoundland, Canada.
These taggingscientists, researchers and volunteers 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.
Marine researchers sailed Costa Rica open waters for some 30 hours in their search for knowledge about these ancient marine animals.
They are engaged in a kind of working Costa Rica vacation that they hope will contribute to saving these marvelous animals now endangered in much of their range.
Cocos Island was described by the famous oceanographer, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever encountered. The small island, just nine square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.
It was not the pretty palm trees or beaches that captured the imagination of the Captain. Its beauty lies off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have voted one of the Seven Wonders of Cost Rica. It is there that one finds incomparable treasure: huge numbers of fish, whales and porpoises and turtles.
Sea turtles have been roaming the oceans since the days of dinosaurs. Imagine the mighty T Rex feeding on them 200 million years ago when they paddled ashore to lay their eggs.
The mighty Tyrannosaurus fed on them more than 200 million years ago as they went ashore to lay their eggs on ancient beaches.
These ancient beings swim all the seas on the globe except the frozen Arctic and Antarctic.
However, those numbers are no more. Today, man's unrestrained coastline development and wanton robbing of their nests have put these creatures at risk. For many years, millions were slaughtered in South America to make expensive Italian shoes.
Jacque Yves 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."
But, world conservation organizations are working to restore at least some turtle populations. Conservation groups and researchers have begun tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in remote places like Cocos Island. Some animals are fitted with flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters in an effort to track their migration patterns and we now know that some species roam across thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the cold and deep waters off Newfoundland, Canada.
These taggingscientists, researchers and volunteers 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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