Volvo Ocean Adventure to Sponsor Sea Turtle Release Event in Costa Rica for US High School Students

    ROCKLEIGH, N.J., Aug. 15 This coming September, 12 US
teachers and high school students will travel to Tortuguero, Costa Rica to
participate in an environmental education event sponsored by the Volvo Ocean
Adventure (VOA). The two contest winning groups, Jacksonville High School in
Jacksonville, TX and Gulliver Preparatory School located in Miami, FL will be
hosted by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), the world's oldest sea
turtle research and conservation group.
    The students will assist CCC researchers in monitoring sea turtle nesting
sites and participate in the tagging and release of a sea turtle fitted with a
satellite transmitter.  As the turtle, fittingly named "Freija" after the
ancient Norse goddess of fertility, is tracked along with other sea turtles by
satellite, their migration will be posted on maps available for free on the
CCC and VOA web sites.
    The turtle release event is part of the VOA and CCC's ongoing partnership,
formed to provide interactive education tools to help children, students and
adults around the world learn more about the environment.
    "We plan on using this experience to involve the student body and larger
community in tracking the course of the turtles and in sea turtle conservation
in general," comments Maria Isabel Toledo, a teacher from Miami's Gulliver
Preparatory High School.
    Volvo Ocean Adventure is the educational outreach component of the
upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, a grueling 9-month round-the-world sailing race
which begins this coming September and is sponsored by Volvo Car Corporation.
The Caribbean Conservation Corporation will be part of the marine aspect of
the VOA educational program. During the trans-global Volvo Ocean Race, CCC
will provide information about the sea turtles and marine habitats visited by
the racing fleet.
    "The program represents a new and exciting platform for world education as
well as using a sporting event to bring science alive," says Dr. Simon Boxall
of the Southampton Oceanography Centre, one of the founders of Volvo Ocean
Adventure.
    Each year, CCC conducts sea turtle nest monitoring and protection programs
out of its field station in Tortuguero. Through its Sea Turtle
Migration-Tracking Education Program, CCC has reached hundreds of thousands of
people with information about sea turtles and the threats to their survival.

    For more information please visit these on-line resources:
    Volvo Ocean Adventure web site: http://www.volvooceanadventure.org
    Volvo Ocean Race web site: http://www.volvooceanrace.org
    Caribbean Conservation Corporation: http://www.cccturtle.org

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