Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren vogelbamb here. The flora and fauna of the
Speaker 1: Galapagos and similar biodiversity hotspots are as beautiful and weird
Speaker 1: as they are scientifically fascinating, and there is a roster
Speaker 1: of measures in place to protect them, including highly regulated
Speaker 1: tourism and fishing protocols, including a sort of protected super
Speaker 1: highway for sea creatures. This swimway, a major marine animal
Speaker 1: migration route, spans more than forty six thousand square miles
Speaker 1: or one hundred and twenty thousand square kilometers between Ecuador's
Speaker 1: Galapgos Islands and Costa Rica's Cocos Island, both UNESCO World
Speaker 1: Heritage Sites. Wildlife like sea turtles and numerous other endangered
Speaker 1: species frequently traverse this roughly four hundred mile route that's
Speaker 1: about six hundred and fifty kilometers looking for food and nesting.
Speaker 1: While while each country protects the waterways around its respective islands,
Speaker 1: the well trodden passage between the tube is riddled with
Speaker 1: life threatening risks for marine life, largely linked to overfishing.
Speaker 1: The underwater highway, first proposed in twenty eighteen, could change
Speaker 1: that and help model conservation for other important areas around
Speaker 1: the world. Here's how it works and how it could
Speaker 1: benefit our increasingly threatened oceans. Okay, first off, there won't
Speaker 1: be a literal expressway with turtles and sharks traversing lanes
Speaker 1: between these two locations, and the marine passage won't require
Speaker 1: construction or physical guard rails like some of the land
Speaker 1: based bridges and tunnels that safeguard migratory terrestrial animals around
Speaker 1: the world. Instead, the Cocos Galapagos Swimway will protect sea
Speaker 1: life from human driven threats like fishing with a series
Speaker 1: of interwoven regulations and oversight. The project will set up
Speaker 1: no fishing zones linking two existing marine protected areas or MPAs,
Speaker 1: the Galapagos Marine Reserve, established in nineteen ninety eight and
Speaker 1: Cocos Island National Park, which has been protected since the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. While animals are already largely safe within those reserves,
Speaker 1: they face severe threats from commercial fishing, such as net
Speaker 1: entanglements when they enter open waters. For the article of
Speaker 1: this episode is based on how Stuffworks. Spoke via email
Speaker 1: Tom O'Hara, communications manager for Galapagos Conservation Trust. He said
Speaker 1: the ocean between Galapagos and Cocos is a popular place
Speaker 1: for industrial fishing fleets to work, including those focus on
Speaker 1: harvesting shark fins often destined for the Asian market. In
Speaker 1: order to fully protect the swimway, new MPAs must be
Speaker 1: created and implemented. In twenty twenty two, Ecuador made headway
Speaker 1: with its new Harmandad Marine Reserve. The reserve added more
Speaker 1: than twenty three thousand square miles that's sixty thous square
Speaker 1: kilometers to Ecuadors protected areas of the ocean. A roughly
Speaker 1: half of that includes a now fishing zone to protect
Speaker 1: Ecuador's portion of the swimway, and now the initiative relies
Speaker 1: on Costa Rica expanding its protections. Houstuffworks also spoke with
Speaker 1: Todd Steiner, executive director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Speaker 1: Steiner is a founding member of Mygramar, a collective of
Speaker 1: scientists studying the movement of Keystone migratory marine species Migramar
Speaker 1: is spearheading this swimway initiative. A Steiner explained that countries
Speaker 1: have what's called exclusive economic zones. A quote, every country
Speaker 1: owns two hundred miles that's three hundred and twenty two
Speaker 1: kilometers out from its land mass. A Costa Rica owns
Speaker 1: two hundred miles from its coast, and it also owns
Speaker 1: two hundred miles around Cocos Island. A Cocos Island and
Speaker 1: the Galapagos are three hundred and ninety four miles that's
Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty four kilometers apart, so the exclusive
Speaker 1: economic zones just overlap. If you can get these two
Speaker 1: countries to agree, you can protect a large swath of
Speaker 1: this important migration corridor to run effectively. This protected swimway
Speaker 1: requires oversight from the government and scientists in the Galapagos.
Speaker 1: This is already in motion, O'Hara said. The Galapagos Marine
Speaker 1: Reserve is policed by both the Marine Unit of the
Speaker 1: Galapagos National Park Directorate and by the Ecuadorian Navy. There
Speaker 1: is also increasing use of technology such as satellites to
Speaker 1: monitor fishing activity. Various sea creatures frequent this migratory route
Speaker 1: throughout their life cycles. It sees turtles and sharks, including
Speaker 1: six endangered species whale sharks, tiger sharks, leatherback turtles, green turtles,
Speaker 1: silky sharks, and scalloped hammerhead sharks. Creatures follow this specific
Speaker 1: route because it's easy to navigate. The islands are the
Speaker 1: volcanic mountain tops of a long underwater mountain range. Because
Speaker 1: the range is volcanic, it's also magnetic. Species use this
Speaker 1: to navigate from point to point. The Swimways Mountain range
Speaker 1: is packed with biodiversity, providing food for migratory animals along
Speaker 1: their journeys. The migrators also flock to the Cocos and
Speaker 1: Galapagos Islands for nesting and foraging, and many of these
Speaker 1: species can use all the help they can get. For example,
Speaker 1: the Galapagos green turtle averages about one hundred eggs per nest,
Speaker 1: yet only two on average reach the adult stage due
Speaker 1: to natural predators like crabs and birds. Once these two
Speaker 1: ish hatchlings reach adulthood and begin to travel, they encounter
Speaker 1: even more threats, again like commercial fishing. According to the
Speaker 1: World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, more than two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand turtles around the world die after being caught
Speaker 1: in fisheries, largely from fishing nets. These are bad odds
Speaker 1: for the Galapagos green turtle, which is listed as endangered
Speaker 1: by the WWF. It's even worse news for the leatherback
Speaker 1: sea turtle, which is on the verge of extinction due
Speaker 1: to overfishing pressures. The WWF reports of the Pacific Ocean
Speaker 1: may have only two thousand, three hundred adult leatherback females remaining.
Speaker 1: The Cocos Galapagos Swimway was designed to safeguard marine migrators
Speaker 1: like the sea turtle, but turtles aren't the only animals
Speaker 1: that would benefit from enhanced protections. After all, everything on
Speaker 1: our planet is linked, O'Hara said. Island, coastal and marine
Speaker 1: ecosystems are all linked, and healthy ocean biodiversity helps terrestrial
Speaker 1: and coastal species that depend directly or indirectly on the ocean.
Speaker 1: Carbon dioxide is absorbed and stored by marine ecosystems such
Speaker 1: as mangroves, and by marine creatures themselves. Protecting the seas
Speaker 1: around the Galapagos is not just about protecting marine wildlife,
Speaker 1: It's about safeguarding the future of our own species. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article the Galapagos and Cocos
Speaker 1: Islands are building a turtle super Highway on how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com, written by Stephanie Vermilion. Brain Stuff is production
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