Cocos Island National Park in Costa Rica is known worldwide as an ocean haven for
spectacular sharks, rare sea turtles, whales and abundant marine
wildlife. Divers travel for days for the privilege of exploring the
waters of the Park, more than a day by boat off Costa Rica's Pacific coast. But even
World Heritage status has not stopped commercial fishers from invading
these treasured waters to set illegal hooks and lines in ruthless
pursuit of swordfish, tuna and big fish that are quickly disappearing
from the open ocean. Click here to read "Underwater Serengeti" article from Earth Island Journal.
Photos by George Duffield
To expand the connections between scuba divers and Cocos Island research
and conservation, Sea Turtle Restoration Project is now partnering with
nonprofit Project Aware "Protecting Our Ocean Planet - One Dive at a
Time." Learn more about Project Aware at www.projectaware.org.
STRP is working to demand that Costa Rica protect Cocos Island National Park from outlaw fishers and to expand the boundaries of the no-fishing zone around the Park. We want Costa Rica
to create a protected area that connects all the way to Ecuador’s
waters, northeast of the Galapagos Islands. These two nations could
create one of the world’s largest protected ocean zones, and save the
endangered leatherback turtle from extinction. More...
Sea Turtle Restoration
Project is partnering with its Costa Rican sister organization PRETOMA to conduct research focusing on
the short and long-range movements of schooling scalloped hammerhead
sharks and sea turtles. In total, nearly 150 sharks
have been tagged with acoustic telemetry and 6 acoustic receivers are
currently deployed on the island. More...
STRP welcomes experienced divers who want to participate in our ongoing research to help tag and track sea turtles and sharks in the Cocos Islands. You will get hands-on opportunities to capture turtles and attach satellite and acoustical transmitters and to tag and photograph hammerhead sharks underwater. More...
