Published 11:28 IST, July 14th 2021

'Superhighway' of sharks and turtles discovered deep in Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica

An underwater 'superhighway' stretches around 700 km deep in the Pacific Ocean. It is located between the marine reserves of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.

Reported by: Apoorva Kaul
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An underwater 'superhighway' stretches around 700 km deep in Pacific Ocean. It is located between marine reserves of Ecuor's Galapagos Islands and Cocos Island off coast of Costa Rica, according to scientists.  'superhighway' is important for sea life, such as sea turtles, whale sharks and hammerhe sharks, as per a CNN report. 

Scientists try to rescue 'superhighway' of sharks

route can be dangerous as swim way is open to fishing vessels, unlike marine reserves at each end. According to data, population of migratory species is declining. Most of se species are also endangered. Alex Hearn, a biology professor and founding member of MigraMar, which is a coalition of scientists and environmental groups told CNN that protecting biodiversity hotspots around islands is t eugh.

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Hearn’s team is campaigning for entire swim way to be protected. swimwear is an area, which stretches over 2,40,000 square kilometres of ocean. team wants to get fishing restrictions extended beyond current 74-kilometres rius around Galapagos islands and a 22-km rius around Cocos Island. This will help in creating a narrow-protected channel between two that follows a chain of seamounts, underwater mountains that rise from seafloor. scientists of MigraMar have been trying to prove importance of swim way by documenting species that use it. 

Scientists have been able to monitor exact pathways of marine species along swim way. All of se species are suffering from population decline and are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. most common threat to se migratory species is fishing, reported by CNN. y can be accidentally caught by fishing vessels, entangle mselves in nets, or in case of sharks, are illegally hunted for ir meat and fins. MigraMar have produced a document outlining need to create swim way, calling for it to include " take zones" that prohibit human disturbance such as fishing. 

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IM: Unsplash

11:28 IST, July 14th 2021