Kuroshima Research Station is a marine research institute in

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, located on the island of Kuroshima. (黒島) It was established in 1973 as the Yaeyama Marine Park Research Institute, for the purpose of managing and utilising the marine park area in Sekisei (石西)

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

between Ishigaki (石垣) Island and

Iriomote is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands of Japan, and the second largest in Okinawa Prefecture after Okinawa Island itself. The island has an area of and a 2005 population of 2,347. The island does not have an airstrip, and most visitors—over ...

(西表) Island including Kuroshima Island. From the beginning, it worked as ocean research station, and existed until 2002 under the financial support of Nagoya Railroad Business Operations Co. Ltd. At present, Kuroshima Research Station belongs to the NPO Sea Turtle Association of Japan, which took over the activities of the institute.

Activities

Some of the institutes activities include 30 years’ research into the nesting of

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

, including confirmation of the nesting of the

hawksbill sea turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution that is largel ...

for the first time in

, and confirming the nesting of

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exte ...

s. They have also researched acanthasters and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

s. In 2005, they sponsored the Japanese Sea Turtle Conference, which is held every year at the location of sea turtles nesting rookeries in Japan.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Sea Turtle Association of Japan
* ttp://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/006/english/index.html The nature of Yaeyama Islands Turtle conservation organizations Animal welfare organizations based in Japan Environmental organizations based in Japan Environmental organizations established in 1973 1973 establishments in Japan Marine biology Research institutes