Ecuador+(Nick)

Nick (Ecuador)

__**//Ecuador// **__

__**General Info**__

__Capital__- **Quito.**

__Population__- 14,464,739 (Total population- 0.99 Male/Female).

__Demographics-__
 * Degree of Infectious Diseases
 * High.
 * Food or Water-Borne Diseases
 * Bacterial Diarrhea, Hepatitis A, and Typhoid fever.
 * Vector-Borne Diseases
 * Dengue fever and Malaria.
 * Water contact disease
 * Leptospirosis
 * Rare and severe Bacterial infection that is introduced from water that has been contaminated with animal urine.
 * Leptospirosis can take anywhere of 2-26 days with an average of 10, to develop.
 * Symptoms: dry cough, fever, headache, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and shaking chills.
 * Physicians density
 * 1.48 physicians/1,000 population.
 * Hospital bed density
 * 1.5 beds/1,000 population.
 * Birth rate
 * 19.96 births/1,000 population.
 * Death rate
 * 5 deaths/1,000 population.
 * School life expectancy
 * Total- 14 years.
 * Male- 13 years.
 * Female- 14 years.

__Religion__- Roman Catholic (95%), or other (5%).

__Official Languages__- Spanish (official), or Amerindian (Quechua mostly).

__Major Exports__- $17.4 Billion (2010) petroleum, bananas, shrimp, cacao, coffee, cut flowers, wood, and canned fish.

__Major Industries__- oil refining, fresh tropical fruits, flowers, metal products, cocoa, textiles, wood products, chemicals, food processing, processed coffee, and automobiles.

__Major Markets__- 35% US, Latin America excluding Andean Community 24%, Andean Community 18%, Europe union 13%, and Asia 6%.

__Major Imports__- 18.9 Billion (2010) industrial materials, fuels and lubricants, non-durable consumer goods, and industrial capital goods.

__Major Suppliers__- Latin America more than 40%, US 26%, Asia 21%, and Europe Union 9%.

__Monetary System__- U.S. dollar.

__**Geography**__

Ecuador borders the Pacific in Western South America at the equator (which it is named after the Equator-Ecuador). Ecuador has a wide variety of natural formations, from the plains of the Amazon Basin to the desert-like Southern Coast to the snow-capped peaks of the Andes mountain range. Ecuador is one of the smallest countries in South America, and has a total area of about 280,000 square kilometers, which also includes and Galapagos Islands.

Agriculture and mining have long been the economic mainstays. Also more workers have gained livelihood from agriculture than any other job out there. on the other hand mining employees very few workers ,but contributes much to national economies with exporting goods. Ecuador relies heavily on few items such as Petroleum that world trade prices that often go through rigorous changes effects this country hard because it is so dependent on certain items that when the price drops so does there national income.

In Ecuador there are many different climates and micro-climates. Also in Ecuador geography and temperatures are determined by elevation and not season like we have here where weather changes by the time of year rather than the elevation of your location. The Galapagos Islands and the coast of Ecuador are influenced by ocean currents. it is a warm central climate. as of the rest of Ecuador the climate is completely random and fluctuates so randomly that all four seasons can be experienced in just a single day!


 * __Brief History__**

Ecuador's history extends over a a 9,000-year period. In these 9,000 years there was a variety of cultures and territories that has influenced what is now known as the Republic of Ecuador. Five eras came from this time starting with Pre-Columbian, and moving on to the Conquest, Colonial Period, the War of Independence, and then finally the Republican Era. To be brief it all started with a variety of cultures and finishes with the Incan invasion. they were closely followed by the arrival of the Conquistadors, which means the Spanish conquerors. They in turn found modern day Quito (which is Ecuador's Capital) and Guayaquil. then time led on until Gran Colombia and Simon Bolivar brought the country to their final vision which is now called the Republic of Ecuador or just Ecuador as most people would call it.

__**Government and Current Political Situation**__

In Ecuador there Government is almost exactly the same as ours (a three branched Democracy). [The President is Rafael Correa]. They also use our monetary system. It seems to me that Ecuador saw America liked what they saw and went with it. Although this is not quite what happened they did do a little revising like adding a electoral agency called the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (which after looking up I could not find anything that was not in Spanish or had a somewhat relation with my topic). Another different variation on our voting system is that after the age of 65 you are no longer allowed to vote anymore. I think that all people should be able to vote after the age of eighteen until you decide that you do not like to vote any longer. It seems that there is no other major changes in out system that would be noticeable if you lived there (I found this out after further research).

__**Culture**__

Unlike out traditions in Ecuador the whole day and diet are based around lunch and not dinner like we have here. Although there is no specific food that you could call Ecuadorian they do have certain areas where certain food is consumed. Like near the coast a normal diet would include fish, beans, and plantains which are somewhat like bananas.



In Ecuador there is not too much clothing style of there own or even of a widespread tradition of clothing. The one item of clothing that Ecuador is in fact the origin is strangely named "Panama hat" and is also known as Sombrero de paja toquilla.

The main sport in Ecuador is obviously Football (which we call Soccer) as of many Spanish speaking countries.

Another Thing that is too non widespread and is almost completely different every where you go is Celebrations. Most celebrations are highly anticipated and are welcome among many people. Depending on where you are located in Ecuador could mean that there are no big celebrations or it could mean that there are as many as 1 a week although they may not be big or as celebrated as others.

The Art of Ecuador is mostly made by the Quichua people of Tigua. there art can be bought all over Ecuador and is mostly famous for there vibrant colors and simplistic designs.

Although Music is a very important in Ecuador there is not too much to say about it as it seems. I know that music is just as most other things about Ecuador like how it depends on where you are in Ecuador that mainly determine the type of instruments played and sought after.

__**Tourism**__

I know that if I went to Ecuador I would like to go to Quito its capital. I found out that it would only be 768 dollars to fly from Charlotte to Quito.

And the hotel i would attend would be Casa Gangotena. For a night it would be about 375 dollars. There are many sites that i would like to go to like the Iglesia La Compañía de Jesús (top). The hotel is below the church. **__Sources__**

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__**Current Event #1**__

[|ECUADOR EMERGES AS A HUB FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIME, REPORTS DEUTSCHE WELLE]
3 February 2012
 * BY JAMES M. DORSEY**

Ecuador is emerging as a focus for transnational criminal groups, according to US and European officials. Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers as well as Chinese and African human traffickers use it as a business hub. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body responsible for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is expected at its meeting in February in Abu Dhabi to include Ecuador on its high-risk jurisdiction list at the request of G20 finance ministers.
 * [|Deutsche Welle]**

//Some of President Rafael Correa’s closest aides have//

//become embroiled in a FARC funding scandal.// The officials and analysts say concern about Ecuador has been mounting since an Ecuadorian government investigation revealed in December that the **[|drug trafficking Revolutionary Army of Colombia]** (FARC) possessed an extensive network in Ecuador that includes some of President Rafael Correa’s closest aides and may have allowed the guerrillas to partially fund his 2006 election campaign. FARC has been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Ecuadorian Troops have frequently clashed with FARC rebels on the border to ColombiaThe investigation into a 2008 Colombian bombardment of a jungle camp on Ecuadorian territory, in which the FARC’s second-in-command Raul Reyes was killed, relied heavily on 600 gigabytes of data found in computers and hard drives in the destroyed camp and authenticated by Interpol. Correa has denounced the investigation, which he initiated. FARC’s penetration of Ecuador’s government and judiciary, the country’s weak institutions and anti-money laundering laws and its nonexistent anti‐terror financing laws as well as its porous borders with its drugs producing neighbors have turned Ecuador into a place where transnational criminal organizations from Latin America, Russia, China, India and Africa can conduct business, according to a just-released report by the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC). “Ecuador (is) attractive to a host of Latin American criminal organizations, particularly for money laundering activities,” the report says. The report goes on to say that Ecuador is “increasingly attractive for Russian organized criminal groups, both for weapon sales to the FARC and to launder money” and that “Chinese triads, particularly those involved in smuggling human beings, have greatly increased their presence in Ecuador.” The Financial Action Task Force warned in 2007 that Ecuador had failed to comply with 48 of its 49 recommendations on money laundering and terrorist financing. The officials say the lifting in 2008 of visa requirements for nationals of most countries and the adoption in 2000 of the US dollar as Ecuador’s national currency make it easy for Russian, Chinese, Indian and African criminal organizations to operate in Ecuador. The dollarization of Ecuador’s economy, lax restrictions on the movement of large amounts of money and some of world’s strongest bank secrecy laws enable the laundering by Russian crime groups of proceeds of Mexican drug and Asian and African human traffickers. A recent study by Quito’s San Francisco University concluded that annually up to $1billion (0.7 billion euros) are laundered through Ecuador. US law enforcement officials say the figure could be substantially higher. The lifting of visa requirements has allowed Chinese triads as well as Indian and African human traffickers to process people they are trafficking through Ecuador, the Washington institute’s report says. US diplomats say that virtually every non-Latin American immigrant caught since the lifting entering the United States from Central America and Mexico has transited through Ecuador. “They are mostly Africans or Central Asians, which raises security concerns,” one diplomat said. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Ecuador has been accused of being a money-laundering hubUS concern about Ecuador is compounded by recent agreements between Ecuador’s central bank and Iranian financial institutions subject to sanctions by the United Nations and the United States. The agreements allow the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) to deposit $120 million in the central bank to fund trade between the two countries. US officials note that trade between Ecuador and Iran has never passed the $2.5 million mark and has dropped in recent years to as low as $16,000. The US Treasury imposed sanctions on EBDI a month before Ecuador concluded its agreement with the bank. The agreements allow Bank Saderat, an EBDI subsidiary, to open a branch in Ecuador. Analysts say the agreements were in retaliation for alleged US support of the Colombian attack on Ecuador in 2008. The US has denied guiding the Colombian aircraft or providing munitions and intelligence for the attack. The attack was part of Colombia’s US-backed military campaign against FARC that has effectively pushed the guerrillas from the center of the country to its borders with Ecuador and Venezuela. Increasingly dependent on Ecuador for the supply of precursor chemicals, food, medicine and weapons and the delivery of its cocaine to foreign markets, FARC has sought to ensure its access to the country. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: FARC leader Raul Reyes was killed in a jungle camp on Ecuadorian territoryThe investigation into the Colombian attack concluded that to do so, FARC has corrupted Ecuador’s judicial system. “What is at stake is the security of the country itself,” the investigation report warned. It quotes a 2008 handwritten note from Reyes, the killed FARC commander, to Ecuador’s than prosecutor general, Xavier Garaicoa, saying that “we have received with satisfaction your message of solidarity with our organization, in benefit of the Colombian people and thank you for your offer to use your good offices on our behalf.” The report lists multiple seizures of cocaine by the police and military in which none of those arrested served significant jail time. It said the military was investigating some 50 cases in which armed forces personnel were suspected of “not complying with authorized procedures, carrying out business with illicit irregular forces, and maintaining unauthorized contacts. Every day more cases of complicity are added, involving cases of trafficking in drugs, weapons, precursor chemicals and fuel.” The report goes on to say that numerous court cases have been annulled and cites among many that of Lt. Col. José Hidalgo Obando, who was tried for frequently failing to arrest FARC patrols on Ecuadorian territory. “The judicial process was annulled on Oct. 1, 2008, and the reports of his actions rest in the archives of the armed forces,” the report says. Speaking to Ecuadorian journalists, the investigation’s coordinator Francesco Huerta warned that Ecuador is “becoming a narco-democracy.” The journalists quoted him as saying that FARC wielded influence throughout Ecuadorian society in politics, the church, the military, justice, civil society and the media. Huerta said the prosecutor general’s office was dragging its feet on investigating crimes identified in the report. The report, nonetheless, carefully evaded attributing any direct blame to Correa himself. FARC’s Raul Reyes was less diplomatic in his appraisal of Correa. “This place is a trap,” he wrote in his diary days before he was killed in the Colombian air raid. “They have me tied up here under the pretext that I should receive the international delegations. All this stuff is very false… The revolutionaries who visit me, save for a few people, only want money and deals. I ask myself, how many of them are infiltrators who work as double agents? I feel the presence of double agents in Correa’s intimate group, without a doubt… Trusting Correa was suicide. All the contributions of money for Correa’s campaign weren’t worth a damn.”
 * Ecuador attracting transnational crime**
 * Shady financial dealings**
 * Judicial system corrupted**

__**Summary**__ This wonderful article is to inform the world of how Ecuador has and still is in trouble way over its head in drugs, violence, and much crime. Now this article talks how they have planned to help stop these crimes and how now that they are more relevant now they should and may take new actions to help douse these crimes with upgraded security in many aspects. __**Current Event #2**__

[|Ecuador: Citizens React to Verdict Against Newspaper El Universo]
On Thursday, February 16, the highest Ecuadorian court upheld a verdict in favour of President Rafael Correa in a libel case against newspaper El Universo, one of the major dailies in this South American country. It's been less than a year since President Correa[| sued the newspaper], it's directors and the editor for slander against him for [|an opinion column] [es] written by Emilio Palacio. The column refers to the alleged directive of the president to fire shots at civilians during a revolt on the September 30, 2011. Palacio [es], author of the column and former editor, is now seeking asylum in the United States; while journalist and former director Carlos Pérez is currently exiled in the Embassy of Panama in Quito [es] after the news broke and the sentence against the newspaper was confirmed. Correa's lawsuit is the first action taken by the highest court of justice in Ecuador, the new National Court of Justice, which was initiated just three weeks ago. The sentence against El Universo demands $40 million U.S. dollars in damages and 3 years in prison for each offender. Ruptura [es], a political news source in Ecuador, compares the economic value of the sentence: > cuarenta millones equivalen a 40 veces el caso más importante de desaparición y crimen de Estado, como es el caso Restrepo; o son el equivalente de 600 años de sueldo presidencial. 40 million equates to 40 times the cost of the most important cases of disappearances or crimes against the state, as in the Restrepo case; or it's the equivalent to 600 years of a presidential salary. President Rafael Correa and Carlos Pérez, ex-director of El Universo –Photo reproduced under authorisation of the newspaper El Comercio, Quito - Ecuador Lawyer and blogger Silvana Tapia, who writes in the blog Lunas Azules [es] (Blue Moons), analysed the legal proceedings from which the sentence was arrived. Silvana believes that, “the law must correct concrete actions, not repercussions much less the characters of persons”, and outlines: > Del universo de conflictos que pueden aparecer en la vida de una persona, una mínima parte debería resolverse mediante la aplicación de la ley penal: conductas que vulneran bienes jurídicos esenciales como la vida y la integridad física y sexual. Por supuesto que el buen nombre y el honor son atributos de la personalidad, pero es el derecho civil, que se ocupa de los perjuicios que pueden causarse unos particulares a otros, el que está llamado a restablecer el equilibrio cuando se presentan polémicas como la generada por un artículo de opinión que utilizó con descuido e incuria, los adjetivos y los epítetos. In the universe of conflicts that can occur in the life of a person, a minimal part should be resolved with the application of the legal system: conducts that threaten essential judicial privileges like life, personal and sexual integrity. Of course, a good reputation and honour are personal attributes, but this pertains to civil law, which handles prejudices directed at others, and is called upon to re-establish equilibrium when controversies arise due to opinion articles in which certain adjectives and epithets are used indiscriminately and in negligence. Despite efforts by organisations like the Human Rights Foundation and Human Rights Watch to eliminate the penalty for defamation in Ecuador [es], the National Court of Justice declared it would follow through with its decision. However, the Ecuadorian population remains unsure on whether this is a good judgement or a bad one, brought forward by the [|criticism and haste] [es] with which the final decision was taken. Manuel Ignacio López in the blog Today and now [es] believes, just as Fernando Balda [es], that Correa's government has a team of followers lined up in an organised system on social networks which allows results like the one from last Thursday in the National Court of Justice. But López points a finger at those who defend Correa's actions as agents of the government: > …Unos repiten su discurso de los sábados. Otros escriben cartas a los diarios y organizaciones diciendo que aquí no pasa nada. Otros lo acompañan a las audiencias, avalando el abuso con su presencia. Otros, que incluso fueron periodistas o editorialistas, prefieren ser cómplices con su silencio. No quieren perder sus privilegios. A ellos se suman periodistas de medios del Gobierno que defienden estos abusos que antes hubiesen rechazado a toda voz. Cambian su defensa de la libertad de expresión por la defensa de sus puestos. Some repeat Saturdays' drivel. Others write letters to newspapers and organisations saying that nothing is going on here. Others, accompanied by audiences, swallow the abuse with their presence. Others, including journalists or editors, prefer to be accomplices with their silence. They don't want to lose their privileges. They are all a bunch of agents of the government who defend this abuse that they themselves rejected with all their might in the past. They would trade their freedom of expression to keep their posts. While the Ecuadorian Association of Editors and Journalists (Aedep), the National Journalists Union (UNP), and Fundamedios (Andes Foundation for the Observation and Study of Media Arts) [|question the sentence] [es] some [|Ecuadorean Twitter users] [es], like Economics and Finance student Sebastián Lucero (@gamuzeins) [es], disagree: > Ser periodista no da carta libre para injuriar y lanzar epítetos sin fundamentos. La falta de ética y profesionalismo se paga. Being a journalist doesn't give anyone the right to insult and throw names without due cause. Serves them right for their lack of professionalism. On the other hand, lawyer and Twitter user Pablo Garzón (@pgarzon) published a series of tweets on the day of the sentence: > [|@pgarzon] [es]: En tu casa, con tus amigos, déjales saber que lo de El Universo no fue un juicio justo, se violaron normas y procedimientos elementales. In your house with your friends, let it be known that the El Universo judgment was unfair, norms and basic rules were violated. > [|@pgarzon][es]: Si no leías El Universo, si te cae mal Emilio Palacio, no importa. Ahora podrán cometer el mismo atropello a cualquier diario, entiéndelo! If you didn't read El Universo, if you don't like Emilio Palacio, it doesn't matter. Now, it can happen to any newspaper. Get that into your head! Other Twitter users used [|#ElUniverso] [es] and [|#LibertadDeExprexión] [es] (”Freedom of speech”) when referring to the sentence. Byron Mayorga ([|@bmayorga]) [es], editor general of the tech blog [|Bitscloud] [es], wrote: > El tema #ElUniverso debió haberse resuelto bajo otras instancias: mediación, arbitraje. The El Universo matter ought to have been dealt with in a different manner: mediation, arbitration. To which Ivan Danilo ([|@monoarre]) [es] responded: > @bmayorga Mediación cuando ambas partes quieren negociar, aqui no hubo tal. Mediation is when both parties want to negotiate, here, there was no such thing. At the root of the release of the news of this sentence, the comments in an [|article] [es] in newspaper El Comercio have hinted at a national march being organised for the March 8 in rejection of the court's ruling. The management and staff of El Universo organised their own protest in Quito and Guayaquil [es]. On Twitter, journalists Roberto Villavicencio ([|@robvillavicencio]) and Gabriela Fajardo (@GabyFajardo) ([|1], [|2], [|3]) shared photos of the two hour protest in Quito during the night of February 16. But not all Ecuadorians support these protests. From Guayaquil, Josue Castillo (@Azulito0) [es] writes: > Se los ve bonitos a los payasos que trabajan en el#Universo en lugar de trabajar están parados como todas las cosas. The clowns that work at El Universo look good instead of working they're just standing, just like everything else. From Quito, Victor Constante (@viconst) [es] says that the protests show that there is freedom of expression in the country: > Estos plantones confirman que en Ecuador sí hay libertad de expresión. Celebro la condena a los difamadores de EL Universo! These protests confirm that in Ecuador there is freedom of expression. I celebrate the condemnation of defamation at El Universo. This conversation around freedom of expression in this Andean country will continue to be a heated topic of discussion in the upcoming days. However, Nila Velásquez, the new director of El Universo, has said that there will be no significant changes [es] at the newspaper.

__**Summary**__ This is a article about how the final verdict of a civil court case about the President suing the Newspaper because they published “Slander” about him. The final demands of President Correa is 40 million U.S. Dollars and 3 years in prison for each of the participants in the article. Doesn't that make you happy we have freedom of speech and Civil cases in America don't include prison time. __**Current Event #3**__

Endangered green turtle migration mapped
//By [|Dave Armstrong] // - 03 Feb 2012 13:45:55 GMT //A green turtle escaping from a snorkeller in western Pacific: note the colour via Shutterstock// Cruising the eastern Pacific is everyone's dream, but the green turtle, the only herbivore among the sea turtles, seems to have it made in one sense. With less human predation than previously, animals that can escape nets gather in seagrass beds worldwide to feed. Nesting is rare these days, but some sites remain in Turkey despite the perilous critically endangered state of the Mediterranean population. Elsewhere, the chelonian is endangered but its nest sites exist around Ascension in the Atlantic, and around Caribbean and Australian coasts. The worst situation is in the north of the Indian Ocean where Pakistani sites are rarely protected. Maternal ancestry is now used to determine rookery sites and foraging grounds from south Alaska to the Antarctic Ocean. Two populations of Chelonia mydas, have been determined, instead of the varying species names that used to be given. Even black turtle was a pseudonym, because the green colour is often unseen beneath the shell (carapace) as seen in the Aussie below: //Variations corresponding to the Australasian and central/eastern Pacific haplotypes (left and right turtles, respectively) caught at the Gorgona foraging study site. Putative west Pacific turtles exhibited a much lighter golden-brown coloration with indentation in the lower carapace edges, in contrast to the darker "black" carapaces of the typical eastern Pacific individuals. Photo: Javier Rodriguez-Zuluaga; Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031486.g002// The Pacific variations show just how variable the species populations there are. This could be genetic, but equally important is the early (carnivorous) diet in the plankton. The invaluable Gorgona National Park, not far from Galapagos, was used for the sampling of turtles by snorkelling at night around the eastern reefs. Careful removal of up to 3mm of skin tissue provided the mitochondrial DNA, analysed by the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Tissue Bank of the Colombian Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Research Institute (IAvH), in Cali, Colombia. Compared to Japanese, Australian and various Pacific island DNA, the turtles' geographic origins were sought and seven "haplotypes" (basically, part of the genotype), found. The results were good, predictable and will lead to useful further research. Michoacan, in Mexico and Galapagos, being nearby, contributed most to the catch, while Ecuadorian rookeries, further south, were also well represented. //Dots represent locations from where haplotypes were identified, excluding an Australasian hypothetical rookery. Turtles were caught by hand in the coral reefs of La Azufrada and Playa Blanca on the east side of the island; Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031486.g001// The western Pacific rookeries were supposed to produce the golden specimens figured above, being 11% of the total sample of 55, some being identical to French Polynesian and Japanese samples from feeding sites. Micronesia (Elato and Ngulu)is strongly suspected with one haplotype, too. Happily the nucleotide diversity was the second highest yet observed. In the Atlantic, nothing like this diversity exists. All the evidence points to a huge Pacific diversity, but mixing of these young adults and juveniles takes place at Gorgona. A stopover situation like that of airlines comes to mind. This busy turtle "station" has had 700 sampled visits by individual turtles in 10 years. It implies that Gorgona's importance could be crucial in what we must remember is the survival of an endangered species. Bali and other Indonesian sites, along with the aforementioned areas decimate the egg numbers and adults are almost equally at risk in other areas. Ocean currents such as the California Current and the North Equatorial Current help to bring these turtles to Gorgona. The northern Pacific is therefore under-represented, but the adult animals are tremendous ocean travellers, allowing for some mixing at breeding. The first map indicates some local origins: //Tracks from three drifters deployed near Eastern Pacific breeding ground heading towards the vicinity of the Gorgona study site (red cross). RE = Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico; MI = Michoacan, Mexico; GA = Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Gor = Gorgona Island, Colombia. Rectangle in broken lines highlight area with frequent eddies provoking recurrent looped tracks with increased speed (about 2X average) but longer entrainment within the current system. Countries' EEZ boundaries are indicated with two-letter abbreviations. Drifter data from NOAA/AOML Global Lagrangian Drifter Data (www.aoml.noaa.gov/envids/gld/krig/parttrk_id_temporal.php); Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031486.g006// //Two drifter tracks initiating on the eastern edge of Western Pacific green turtle habitats leading to areas near the Gorgona study site (red cross). Total duration indicated in the figures. Green turtle rookery locations and abundances derived from IOSEA Marine Turtle Mapping System (stort.unep-wcmc.org/imaps/indturtles) and the Marine Turtle Database maintained by C. J. Limpus at Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia. Purple circles indicate Pacific basin breeding colonies that have been genetically characterized (see Table 2); green circles show populations with no genetic studies. Drifter data from NOAA/AOML Global Lagrangian Drifter Data (@http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/envids/gld/krig/parttrk_id_temporal.php); Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031486.g007// This latter map tries to emphasise just how far these young turtles have already reached in their eventful lives. Note the red line ends in our Micronesian atolls! It's basically an easterly movement, with recovery needed after the juveniles' journey, but do they ever return for the traditional egg-laying at their native beach. Stragglers they might possibly be, but thanks to research by the American countries (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama), worldwide interest will now be stimulated in the destinies and fate of these enchanting mariners.

__**Summary**__ This article is obviously about the Endangered Green Sea Turtle. More specificity its about mapping their travels and migration of this wonderful Herbivore Turtle with its wonderful green shell. But with nesting sites rare we may in a short time never see this wondrous creature ever again, and with this I am hoping that they will make a plan to help increase the number of nesting sites somehow.