Costa Rica's Ocean Prorected

The amount of marine life that is protected in Costa Rica’s ocean has expanded immensely.  There has been a total of 2,900 underwater square miles that have been made safe, protecting endangered species such as sharks and turtles.  This change will also protect a chain of underwater mountains near Cocos Island.  By doing this it will help conserve an entire underwater ecosystem. 

                This marine ecosystem is located 342 miles away from Costa Rica in the Pacific Ocean; and it takes about 30 hours to travel in a boat from land.  The Cocos Island its self is only 12 miles in circumference.  Although there are some abundant species that do live there, this agreement of protection will help guard them from anything that might have affected them without it.

                While Environment Minister Teofilo de la Torre was signing the decree he said, “This is an important step because it is the second marine protected area we have created.  We have increasing responsibilities in the sea, so this government is working to increase the protected areas.” This will provide anything that is required to take care of needs that might be necessary for managing the protected environment. 

                This new protected area is five times larger than any other reserved area around the Islands, and it will also be surrounded by a non-fishing zone.  There have been many fish that have made a decline in the population, leather back turtles being one of the main species.  Scalloped hammerhead sharks are also on the endangered species list.  One of the main reasons that they are endangered is they are accidentally caught in commercial fishing operations.

"This has been a long journey," said Quesada. "We have worked with a host of national research, conservation and fisheries organizations to determine the fairest and most environmentally responsible expansion scenarios. None of this would have been possible without the invaluable scientific and management contributions of the Cocos National Park Administration, the University of Costa Rica's Center for Marine Investigations, Pretoma, Marviva, Forever Costa Rica and, above all, the leadership of President Chinchilla, and her ministers."