Cocos Island Sea Turtle and Shark Expedition 17-27 April, 2012
Principal Investigators: Todd Steiner andRandall Arauz with Guest Scientist Phil Lobell

Research Assistants: Carole Server, Oliver Frankel, Ruth Sarow, Axel Bettermann, Laurel
Fulton, Alexandra Perata, Kris Karlen, William Taylor, Alexander Bazyli, Maynard Luterman, Zbigniew (Dan) Ronisz, Frédérique Vigneron, Damien Mauric, Griselle Arauz

UnderSea Hunter Staff: Rodrigo Roesch & Warren Fernandez, Divemasters

Introduction:

As part of a research program to understand the ecology and movements of sharks and sea turtles within and beyond the borders of Costa Rica’s Cocos Island National Park (Cocos), participants spent seven days at Cocos capturing and tagging sea turtles, recording data on relative abundance on all species of sharks and rays encountered, and collecting scalloped hammerhead shark and sea turtle tissue samples for genetic analysis, and stable isotope analysis.

Participants were divided into two dive teams, which conducted a total of 54 dives during
seven days of diving (April 19-25) at 12 dive sites.

All turtles seen were counted and when possible, attempts to capture them were made.
Assistants helped with catching, moving, weighing and measuring turtles. Other duties
carried out by research assistants included photo/video documentation, shark counting, and receiver retrieval. All receivers were retrieved, data downloaded, new batteries installed and re-deployed. In addition, range tests were conducted on receivers at Manuelita Out and Ulloa.

Read the full report including results and figures here