Photos from 2012 season

Hey all, there are lots of new photos from the 2012 nesting season on Boavista on our Facebook page Turtle Foundation Cabo Verde.  It's been an amazing season (and it's not over yet). Check out the photos  - it will make you want to go there and volunteer with Turtle Foundation to help save this amazing species and amazing place.  Turtle Foundation Cabo Verde

Turtles nesting all over Boavista

Turtles are nesting in extraordinary numbers throughout Boavista this season, so much so that even the beaches around Sal Rei are receiving nesting turtles every night. 

This remarkable development deserves a special protection strategy.  The Turtle Foundation team was eager to get involved in this new challenge and support local initiatives! 

Mr Roque and a turtle track in Baia do Ervatao

 We recently met Mr. Roque, the guardian of Cabral beach, who for the past three years has been voluntarily protecting Cabral beach and Ervatao bay, a small rocky beach behind the hotel Marine Club.  Both beaches pose problems to nesting sea turtles.  Cabral is one of the busiest beaches for locals and tourists on the weekends.  Unfortunately, in addition to city light pollution, people drive and park their cars on the beach and quad tours pass through every day.  Ervatao Bay is hard to access and very rocky, but turtles do come to nest and spend a long time searching for suitable places to dig, making them easy targets for poachers. 

Because this is such a busy season, Mr. Roque needs help to protect these beaches, and the turtles, nests and hatchlings on them. 

In addition, Estoril beach has been also receiving regular visits from nesting turtles.  On this beach, besides the light pollution from bars, restaurants and hotels, there are quad tours compacting the sand, destroying the dunes and their vegetation and affecting nests and hatchlings.

Poaching activities of both turtles and eggs has already been recorded on these three beaches, heightening the risks for turtles and their offspring.

Praia Cabral

Cabral beach - nests and cars tracks

Barroso and Roque, Cabral beach

  
Turtle Foundation promptly began to help Mr. Roque and a group of vocal volunteers from Estoril beach (Rudy and Joao were the first ones!) to protect these beaches. First, we gathered people from Sal Rei and the surrounding regions interested in helping protect the urban beaches and their nesting turtles. We went for a survey in Ervatao Bay with Mr. Roque to count the activities. The following night, volunteers did the first night patrol. Mr. Roque and his volunteers (Nito and Rubens, from Sal Rei, and Eva and Amanda, from Turtle Foundation) went to these beaches in the night of August 1st to check the nesting activities and ensure the safety of any potential nesting turtle. 

Census in Ervatao Bay

This group engaged in the protection of the urban beaches close to Boavista's capital is still in need of volunteers for turtle protection patrols at night as well as help building nest protection to prevent them from being destroyed by quad bikes and other vehicles.

a protected nest, Cabral beach

If you are in Sal Rei and want to help, please contact Mr. Roque (+238) 994 49 66 or Turtle Foundation (+238)  955 69 51, or meet the team at the open air gymnasium in Cabral at 9pm, every night.

2012 School in Nature starts!

School in Nature has started last weekend. A great team was involved in its organization and thanks to it, the first of the 5 youth camps was a success. A big thanks to Isaac and Rita (renewable energy students, TF volunteers for 4 weeks and special guests in School in Nature), Yanick (School in Nature veteran camp leader), Melanie (local volunteer in Boa Esperança camp, School in Nature camp leader), Domingos (Protected Areas Park Guard - Boa Esperança Camp), Lynette (Peace Corps, Turtle Foundation volunteer for 2 consecutives seasons, camp leader in School in Nature), Julie and Ronny (Boa Esperança Camp coordinators) and to everyone from Boa Esperança team for all the help.

School in Nature and Boa Esperança teams

 "The School in Nature opened with a scurry of activity and planning at Boa Esperança camp on Friday, August 3rd, as 23 youth from Sal Rei arrived to learn about turtles and the environment. Special guests from Lisbon University – Portugal, Rita Almeida and Isaac Carrelo provided the camp theme of renewable energy in addition to lots of turtle and beach fun. 

The campers were divided into 4 teams, named after turtles found in the sea around Cape Verde, and competed throughout the duration of the camp. Each team was assigned a Turtle Foundation Cape Verdean and International Volunteer partner to help their team compete and participate in camp activities. Marine Club Hotel kindly provided food for the participants.

The arrival at the camp

Lets start with a game!

The first evening the campers were introduced to turtles in a powerpoint presentation done by Ronny and Amanda about turtle nesting and conservation work. Then, two teams got to experience their first night patrol on the beach led by Lynette and Melanie, while Amanda, Rita, Isaac and Domingos remained at the camp with the rest of the campers to watch films and music videos and get aquainted. The lucky junior rangers on the beach patrol saw numerous tracks from turtles, and when they reached the shipwreck near the end of the beach, they eagerly witnessed a turtle making 4 attempts before she finally dug a nest and laid her eggs. A couple boys got to put their new ranger training into practice as they crossed the tracks in the sand to notify later patrols that this nest had been recorded.

Saturday morning began early with a military style workout led by the camp troups on the beach. After breakfast, the kids had no time to stop before they were competing in a fast paced beach cleanup to make the biggest pile of trash. When everyone was exhausted from a marvelous job that left the once trash ridden beach beautiful and clean, we all headed to the water for a couple hours of skimboard, bodysurfing, and lots of beach fun.

Exercise early in the morning

   

Race to clean the beach

An afternoon lesson on renewable energy by Rita and Isaac was followed by a series of beach games, turtle sand sculptures and swimming. Saturday night, the groups switched for patrol and in camp fun.  The two teams who had not yet patrolled found it well worth the wait when their patrol yeilded three turtles, including two nests. We made it back from patrol not long before the rains came, and awoke Sunday morning to a cloudy day, disappointingly preventing Rita and Isaac from teaching the campers to make solar cars on schedule.

 

Isaac and Rita talking about renewable energy in Cape Verde

Football time

 

Having fun in the waves

Fortunately, the sun came out in the afternoon, and the cars were a huge success.  Two teams worked on each car, designing it with recycled materials. One group made a sturdy if slow boxy (juicebox) car while the other opted for a speedy milk carton race car that required frequent repairs. Races were held, but in the end a tie was announced!

Building the solar cars

Testing the inventions

small repairs were necessary

Isaac proud of his team

The camp ended with some more beach fun and announcements of winners and thanks to all participants for their hard work and enthusiasm making the school in nature a fun filled and educational weekend for leaders, volunteers, and campers alike." Lynette 

Congrats for the good work!

Time to say goodbye

SEASON UPDATE: news from the field

Lots of things happening since the beginning of the season. Here goes an update of what we have been doing lately.

Lets start with the TAOLA meeting (Capeverdean Sea Turtle Network), held in Mindelo in May 22, 23 and 24. The network was finally formalized, counts now with the necessary statute. The board members were elected and all the organizations involved in the sea turtle conservation on Cape Verde are represented on it.

Julio Rocha, founder member of Turtle Foundation - Cabo Verde, is the President of the network.

Back in Boavista, Turtle Foundation was invited to participate in the IV Professional Faire (May 31st), promoted by the Câmara Municipal da Boavista, and present information about the project and the different professionals involved in the sea turtle conservation area.

A few days later, was time to celebrate the Day of the Environment, June 5th. Turtle Foundation was there, together with Câmara Municipal, Clube Ambiental da Boavista e Natura 2000, at the Sal Rei's main square, to offer painting activities to the kids, all centered in the nature and the importance of its protection. The work produced by the participant children was exhibited at the Centre of the Delegation of Agriculture and Environment during one week.

In the 15th of June, we started setting up Boa Esperança camp and the day after was Lacacao's turn. Fundo das Figueiras started one week after the camps and right in time to welcome the first nesting turtles in north beaches.

Practical and theoretical lessons about the night patrols and turtle work were addressed to the team in the camp sites during the first week of the field work.

Grupo Varandinha's team, responsible for the protection of Varandinha beach and supported by Turtle Foundation, received the training in their first day/night of patrol, June 16th.

Also in the 16th, the Day of the African Child was celebrated in Joao Galego, an important community of the north area of the island, in an event organized in partnership between the Protected Areas Group, Natura 2000 and Turtle Foundation. Special activities were offered to the public of all ages, aiming the interaction between children, youth and adults and always with music playing in the background - indispensable to any good party around here. 

In the 25th of June, the soldiers arrived and before heading to the camps, they received the training in sea turtle work, night patrol protocols and management of conflicts - a very dinamic and interactive session. 

And the training sessions do not stop there. The Capeverdian Red Cross team honored us with their presence and kindly came from Praia, Santiago Island, to present to our groups a First Aid Course, during the weekend of the 7th/8th of July. Turtle Foundation is grateful to the Red Cross for this important support to our teams and therefore to the sea turtle protection in Boavista, and hopes that this partnership will become stronger and last for many seasons.

Finally, ranger and interns are still attending the sustainable tourism training and learning how to give information talks about the Turtle Foundation work, handling merchandising products and guiding turtle watching tours, during the on going trainig that started in June 16th and is planned to last until the end of the current month.

Talking about new challenges and projects, Turtle Foundation and Grupo Varandinha teams went together for morning surveys in Santa Mônica beach (June 29th and July 24th) to gather fresh information about the nesting activity there and elaborate the best strategy to protect that beach.

Turtle Foundation has recently (July 1st) welcomed in the team the 6 guards hired by the Capeverdian Protected Areas Group. This addition will definitely reinforce the team in the field and the protection work, and comes in an important moment, as the nesting activities in our beaches has so far proved to be higher than in the previous two seasons.  After attending the introductory presentations, the group of guards was splited and designated to their respective camps (2 to Boa Esperança Camp, 2 to Lacacao Camp and 2 to  Fundo das Figueiras).

Our hatchery in Ponta Pesqueiro beach is now set (since July 11th) and already receiving the nests that need to be relocated from Lacacao beach due to the impact of the artificial light from the hotel Rio Tuareg on the emerging hatchlings.

Following the list of special guests, GEOMAR team from Kiel, Germany, has arrived in Boavista in the 18th of July, to give training to Turtle Foundation's rangers and interns in DNA and parasite sampling. Dr. Christophe Eizaguirre and the PhD student Victor Stiebens are currently in the field giving an intensive practical training about these important sampling techniques. 

Unfortunately, some sad news keep arriving. We recently heard that 5 turtles were taken in the sea and brought ashore in the north area in a fishing boat; drag marks were found at the end of Lacacao beach, indicating that one turtle was taken; a turtle was found dead at the end of Agua Doce beach and another one in Varandinha. On the other hand, in a certain way, a higher number of killing was already expected in a busy season like this one seems to be. 

However, with the help of the dedicated volunteers and interns that are constantly arriving every week, the on-going training with experts in their fields and the support of the Protected Areas Group reinforcing the turtle protection, we hope that our intensive protection effort will bring great results for the sea turtle conservation in the island and help to prevent the loggerhead from extinction.

Greetings from the field to everyone! 

TF team

Turtle meat confiscated for the third time in two weeks in Boavista

Thanks to anonymous complaints, about 25 kg of turtle meat were apprehended by the police today in Boavista, while being sold to a restaurant. Those involved were arrested and will respond to judicial process. This is the third apprehension of turtle meat in only three weeks. We hope that this serves as an example and discourage further killings.