Pretoma Tags A Turtle!

*Randall with Hawksbill jewellery confiscated in a market in San Jose*

I have many friends at the wonderful conservation group Pretoma in Costa Rica. They do so many wonderful things for marine life and work tirelessly to eradicate the shark finning industry in the town of Puntarenas CR, combat sea turtle poaching and stop the completion of tuna farm off their country's coast in the Pacific. I just love what they do and I am so happy I had the privilege to meet the President, Randall Arauz, and drop off some supplies to the organization while visiting San Jose. Last week they were fortunate enough to attach a satellite transmitter to a Pacific Green Sea Turtle. Please enjoy the story:

*Randall cleaning & prepping her shell*

Last Friday, February 19, Pretoma researchers tagged a juvenile Pacific green turtle in the Caletas Ario Wildlife Refuge, with a satellite tracking device that allow the monitoring of its movements for the next few months. The Caletas Ario Wildlife Refuge hosts a nesting beach for olive ridley sea turtles, as well a foraging ground for juvenile hawksbill turtles. Pacific green turtles nest sporadically, and are rarely seen in the Marine Protected Area of the Refuge. Last Friday, a team of Pretoma researchers (Randall Arauz, Erick López and Javi Carrión) caught a female juvenile Pacific green turtle in a hawksbill foraging site, and decided to equip it with the satellite transmitter. Hopefully, the information generated will help establish management strategies for this species along the North Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and will tie in nicely with a Pacific green turtle migration study that Pretoma is directing in Cocos Island National Park.

Click here to see the migration of this turtle!

Website: www.pretoma.org

PRETOMA is a Costa Rican Civil Association of Public Interest (Decreto Ejecutivo 34150-J), and is an active member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN and the World Society for the Protection of Animals WSPA.