Recently, a Costa Rica based research fin and satellite tagging program got underway at Cocos Island to study the migration patterns of marine turtles.
Conservation organizations and marine researchers spent some 30 hours sailing to the island in their search to discover migration habits of these ancient marine animals.
They are engaged in a kind of working vacation in Costa Rica that they anticipate will contribute to preserving these incredible 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 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 is unlikely that it was the lovely sand and boulder beaches or palm trees that enthralled Captain Cousteau. Its beauty is found nearby, just off its shores, under water. Costa Ricans have voted it as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica because it is there that one finds incomparable treasure: tremendous schools and varieties of fish, porpoises, whales and turtles.