April 16, 2007 — Biologists will switch on satellite trackers strapped to the backs of 11 female leatherback turtles on Monday, starting what conservationists have dubbed the "Great Turtle Race" to raise awareness of a species threatened with extinction.
Sponsored by U.S. and Costa Rican environmental groups and businesses, the race will track the turtles on their annual 1,200-mile journey from Costa Rica's Pacific coast to the Galapagos Islands.
Environmentalists say 90 percent of the leatherbacks have vanished and the species may disappear within 10 years due to illegal poaching of their eggs, ocean contamination and development near their nesting grounds.
Internet users can log on to http://www.greatturtlerace.com, read about the turtles and then track them over the next two weeks as they complete their migration to the islands off the Ecuadorean coast, according to the event's organizers, headed by Washington, D.C.-based Conservation International.
Most of the competing turtles are expected to be in the water by Monday after laying their eggs on the beach at Playa Grande in Costa Rica.
The Web site features virtual trading cards with caricatures of the turtles with names like Freedom, Windy and Stephanie Colburtle after U.S. comedian Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central fame. It also has stats on their egg-laying history.
