Today marked the launch of migramar.org, a website created jointly by marine research centres in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, focused on working together to understand the dynamics of migratory species in the region, with a special focus on sharks.

Today marked the launch of migramar.org, a website created jointly by marine research centres in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, focused on working together to understand the dynamics of migratory species in the region, with a special focus on sharks.

The website was sponsored by the Oak Foundation and Conservation International. The latter have been instrumental in designing the Marine Corridor – an area of over 211 million hectares of ocean, covering international waters and waters belonging to Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama. Within this vast area, are several Marine Protected Areas, which include the oceanic islands of Galapagos, Malpelo and Cocos, and the coastal islands of Coiba and Gorgona and Machalilla National Park.

The idea behind the Marine Corridor is that countries need to manage shared resources in a strategic, collaborative fashion. Many key species in the region are highly migratory, so only through joint research is it possible to truly understand their dynamics.

The Migramar network includes Fundación Malpelo (Colombia), Marviva (Costa Rica), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), PRETOMA (Costa Rica), Charles Darwin Foundation, Galapagos National Park Service and Equilibrio Azul (Ecuador), and the Biotelemetry Laboratory at UC Davis (USA).

The Migramar website aims to provide a shared platform for these institutions to carry out joint research on key pelagic species.

Initial efforts are focused on sharks, as in recent years there has been worldwide concern that shark populations are declining rapidly due to overfishing.

By a combination of dive census techniques, satellite tracking, ultrasonic tagging and inspection of fisheries landings, the Migramar network expects to provide stakeholders and authorities with the necessary information for conservation of these species within the region.

The Migramar website was designed by Carlos Pi.