Follow Satellite Tracked Sea Turtles from Cocos Island National Park

By April 24, 2011Sea Turtles

Almost six weeks after releasing an adult male Pacific green turtle, captured at Cocos Island National Park, Costa Rica, the turtle, equipped with a satellite transmitter, has traveled 1,062 miles NE (1,709 km) and is currently offshore of El Salvador.

His name is Back Country, and you can watch Back Country’s daily tracks on our website.

The second adult male we have satellite tagged at Cocos, “Yuri,” also headed east toward the Central American coast, then south, traveling all the way to the coast of Panama before we lost transmission. See his old tracks at the C-MAR Project page.

All of the other tagged turtles, most of them sub-adults, are seen in and around Cocos, including Adrienne who was also tagged last month and is still transmitting! She preferred to stay around Cocos, indicating the importance of Cocos Island National Park as a foraging area for young turtles where they can grow to maturity before migrating to their nesting grounds.  We don’t yet know where that is—the Central American coast or the Galapagos Islands, or ???.  Stay tuned.

You can see the tracks of all the turtles we have satellite tagged at the C-MAR Project page.

To learn more about our work at Cocos Island, click here.