Leatherback Turtles at Las Baulas National Park

At Las Baulas sim (think of it as a region) in Second Life®, leatherback turtles make their slow nesting crawl to shore. Some, half submerged, appear like sentient rocks rising out of the sea.

I think of them as emissaries of a deep, wild place I do not know, speaking a language of a time beyond our conception.

Las Baulas is one of the Costa Rica Sims. Giancarlo Takacs, owner and CEO of the sims, greets me as I admire the leatherback builds, contrasted against sandy white sand, the blue of sky and sea and the white sea spray. "Your place is absolutely beautiful," I say.

Takacs says that Las Baulas National Park is one of the most important nesting sites of the leatherbacks - located in his country of Costa Rica. His sims contain several replicas of national parks in Costa Rica. He is very involved in protecting species that are in danger, he says.

In real life, the leatherback turtles or las baulas in Spanish (Dermochelys corlacea), named for their rubbery-skinned shell, are considered the most pelagic and largest of sea turtles. They are generally from 4 to 6 feet and can weigh over a thousand pounds.

Their flippers have no claws and yet the female leatherbacks will crawl to shore, timed with the tides, often to the same beach where they were born, to deposit eggs into soft sand.

Listed as an endangered species in the U.S., the leatherback populations have suffered due to past human poaching of turtle eggs and incidental entanglement in commercial fish nets and lines. Some also die from consuming plastic bags floating in sea water mistaken for their principal food source - jellyfish. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, populations of nesting female leatherbacks have declined from over 100,000 in 1980 to some 26,000 to 43,000 worldwide in recent years.

Las Baulas National Park in Costa Rica is now a protected nesting place for these turtles. In Las Baulas sim, I have an inkling of the marvel of these creatures and a sense of their plight. Perhaps this is one use of virtual space: a global platform to acquaint others with the plight of species. I am also thinking about Las Baulas and the Costa Rica sims, the mix of residential estates (for which the sim owner charges rent) and the nature spaces - commerce and nature in a more or less symbiotic relationship. There is a story there as well.

But what strikes me most is the sense of wonder - of these creatures emerging out of the deep, wild sea. It makes me think of tall ships that come on occasion into Boston harbor, behind great winds upon white sails. Emissaries of a trans-Atlantic sailing regatta, the ships - brigs, barques and schooners among them - bring in a mix of smells that tell of distant ports, a relentless sea, the strength of wind and the endurance of wood and sail.

They make us wonder, beckon us to distant shores.