Preserving an Ancient Race: Costa Rica Sea Turtles

Costa Rica Ecotourism and Conservation

They've been around a long time. In fact, they've been here almost before time itself. Only now, as Americans watch TV in horror and anger, are they being introduced to endangered sea turtles. However, most people know virtually nothing about these amazing animals.

They are among the most ancient of reptiles, descended from land turtles 100,000,000 years ago. How long ago was that? Well, imagine a time on the planet when there were only two super continents and two oceans, when the South Pole was in Africa.

Imagine mighty Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain in the mighty Himalayas. Sea turtles were swimming the oceans for some 35,000,000 generations before the Himalayas appeared on earth.

These beings swim all the seas of the world except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic. Once, the populations of sea turtles were so great that mariners who were lost in the fog, sometimes found land by listening for the sounds of sea turtles paddling towards nesting grounds.

However, those numbers are no more. Today, man's unrestrained coastline development and wanton plundering of their nests have put them at risk. For many years, millions have been in South America to makestylish Italian combs, and expensive shoes. When "I Love Lucy" began airing, there were still so many nesting turtles in Mexico that a billion eggs a year were being laid. Within four decades, so many turtles were killed that only two turtles came ashore one nesting season. And, that slaughter was taking place across the planet.

But, more and more governments and conservationists are working to restore at least some turtle populations. Additionally, in many ways at the forefront of this battle for survival is Costa Rica and Costa Rica ecotourism.

Conservation groups and researchers have begun tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in remote places like Costa Rica's Cocos Island. Some animals are fitted with flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters in an effort to monitor their migration patterns and we now know that some species swim thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the cold and deep waters off Canada.

Cocos Island is one of Costa Rica's Seven Wonders, an uninhabited island halfway to the Galapagos. It's also under consideration as one of the World's Seven Natural Wonders and for a lucky few, a Costa Rica vacation Cocos diving experience of a lifetime . But, it's way out in the Pacific. Conservation organizations and marine researchers spent about 30 hours going to the island in their search for more knowledge about these ancient marine animals. Consider what they do as a kind of scientific working vacation in Costa Rica that maybe will contribute to saving these marvelous animals now sadly endangered in much of their range.

But, truth be told, long before most Americans became distraught at television images of oil covered sea turtles gasping for life, Costa Rica was taking steps to preserve these beings. Long before it was fashionable in Central America, Costa Rica set aside magnificent Tortuguero National Park, just north of where Columbus came ashore and named the country "Rich Coast" (Costa Rica), as the world's largest green sea turtle preserve. Today, thousands of people include Tortuguero in their Costa Rica vacations, so many in fact, that the once impoverished residents along that part of the Caribbean Coast sometimes refer to these animals as the "turtle that laid the golden egg."

But, of course, one day, after the oil has stopped gushing in the Gulf, Americans and most of the rest of the world will forget all about the most ancient mariners and go on their way, thinking about what movie to see, what restaurant to eat in, or what present they want for Christmas. Fortunately, there are a few people in tropical places like Costa Rica who will still work to preserve these great animals.

Jacque Yves Cousteau predicted 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."

We cannot undo the past but the people who tag sea turtles have confidence that marine turtles can survive another 100 million years if we lend them a hand.

And, maybe, just maybe, our Costa Rica vacations to Cocos Island or Tortuguero National Park will contribute a bit, too.

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