Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) began in 2000 as one of many projects formed by Census of Marine Life an organization whose goal is to help understand and explain the diversity and abundances of the ocean in the past, present, and future. After they were formed, TOPP began by building a coalition of researchers form all over the world to find and study predators of the Pacific Ocean. Since then they have satellite tagged 22 different species and more than 2,000 animals These animals include elephant seals, great white sharks, leatherback turtles, squid, albatrosses and more.
Through the efforts of TOPP, new information never before accessed by humans was now available, like migration routes and ecosystems. What was different about this information was that it was through the eyes of the animals, not humans. It also became possible to learn about the ocean itself through use of the animals. This is because they can go to places that humans can't get to and therefore we learn a lot through their everyday actions. Through this data, researches have been able to come up with better ways of protecting endangered species, like the leatherback turtle