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Marine Turtle Newsletter 21:1, © 1982

Editorial

N. Mrosovsky

This issue presents articles documenting migrations of olive ridleys from Costa Rica to Mexico, Ecuador and other countries, together with renewed calls for international cooperation. The precedent for multinational agreements on sea turtles is weak. The treaty between Costa Rica and Nicaragua on green turtles was never ratified by Nicaragua, although later, independently, the processing plants there were closed down. But the need for international cooperation is as great as ever. For olive ridleys in the East Pacific the circumstances are now propitious. There are vigorous investigators in several countries there. The beach at Ostional in Costa Rica has just been given additional protection. Any agreement covering the difficult problem of turtles nesting in one country and residing elsewhere could not only help preserve this species but also be an example to other nation groups with shared turtle resources.