When I (Erich Hoyt) heard about the endangered blue whales turning up regularly in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, especially in an area called the Costa Rica Dome, I began to do research to find out what data was available both in terms of the blue whales, and the overall productivity of the area. I found out that the Costa Rica Dome is defined as a shoaling of the generally strong, shallow thermocline with cold nutrient-rich upwellings (Fiedler, 2002). It is also the only known tropical feeding and breeding area for blue whales. The proposed Costa Rica Dome MPA straddles the waters of the high seas as well as (mainly) Costa Rica and Nicaragua. I learned that the IUCN along with Sylvia Earle had identified the area as a special place and put it in a brochure in 2008 that was circulated among conservation professionals. I felt it was essential to get more recognition for the area especially in terms of the blue whale story so I talked to researchers, gained permission to use their data, worked with mapmakers and submitted a case study in 2009 to the CBD as a potential EBSA. I knew we would have to secure local support so at international meetings I talked with various conservation groups and scientists from the region, finally meeting Jorge Jimenez, president of MarViva, based in Costa Rica, in 2009. We agreed to work together, and built a wider coalition with IUCN, the International Committee on Marine Mammal Protected Areas and others, and helped to raise funds for MarViva to get this on the agenda of a CBD EBSA workshop. The workshop in 2012 formally recommended the EBSA, later approved through the CBD COP, though with changed boundaries, and that has now set the stage for MPA proposals and formal protection.