Time Again for Great Turtle Race

Great Turtle Race II is part of Tracking Of Pacific Predators (TOPP) efforts to learn about endangered species and their ocean habitat. Other species also being tracked.

There’s a lot going on in the ocean right now and you can be part of it all. Last year the first Great Turtle Race made it possible to learn about the challenges facing leatheback sea turtles and to contribute to their protection.

And it was fun, celebrities got involved and everyone could follow their favorite leatherback turtle as she (they are females leaving the nesting beaches to return to feeding areas) made her way across the Pacific.

This year the leatherback sea turtle race will go live online on June 2. Be there for the start of the race and learn about these amazing (and ancient) sea creatures.

But if leatherback sea turtles are not your thing, there are plenty of other marine animals being monitored by Tracking of Pacific Predators which is a part of the Census of Marine Life. This ten year project will finish in 2010, having gained tons of information about the ocean and its inhabitants.

The TOPPs website lets you follow sharks, whales, seals, fish and seabirds in their travels around the ocean. Follow albatross on their mutlti-year flights over open ocean or dive deep under the sea with elephant seals and whales. Information on the site is presented with an eye to getting basic information out there.

But the data section also provides those of us who have a slightly deeper interest with real-time maps and access to scientific publications on the work being done to understand ocean habitats.

That ocean covers 70% of our planet. It is crucial to the health of the earth. Learn more about it from TOPP and have fun doing it.