I am the Swimway

In the heart of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape, between Costa Rica’s Cocos Island and Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, there is a swimway. An abundance of marine species, some critically endangered, rely on this underwater “superhighway” as a migratory corridor, but once they leave the protected waters of Cocos and the Galápagos, they become vulnerable to industrial fishing exploitation. The Sharkwater, a former fishing vessel, was one of such offenders, but has now been repurposed for conservation. This is the story of how 21 multinational researchers and crew members utilized this ship for 20 days to give, instead of take, from the Cocos-Galápagos Swimway. The science they gathered along the way might just be the tipping point to finally get this essential part of our blue planet fully protected.