Erstellt von: frank zindel
08.07.2009

July 8, 2009 - Joana Hancock

Its been two weeks since we started the season, and things keep rolling here! We’re getting more turtles everynight in our beaches, which means more fun patrols, but also much more responsibility! We’ve been very pleased with our soldiers and volunteers, as they have been working extra hard to cover as much as possible our nesting beaches. This week we had our first encounters with “apanhadores”, which resulted in the targeted turtles to be fully protected, but not all are good news. The killing of the nesting females has started, and despite our efforts, we have reported some killings in all of our beaches. As expected, our most problematic area, with two turtles being killed, are Lacacão beach, where a construction site is hosting at least 500 workers, plus a few hundred more illegal people who are waiting for a chance to work there. Its a real miracle that only two turtles have been reported killed, because of the amount of people living there, and also the impact of the light form the site, that is causing disorientation of the nesting turtles, causing disruption to their natural behaviour, resulting in more time spent on the beach looking for the right place to nest. We urgently need more people to help us patrol this beach, and we are interviewing some locals for the job, but we need to find a way to fund these positions.

One of the possibilities is ecotourism. Talks have been underway with tour guides and companies to set up ecotourism in the nesting beaches, but a lot of paperwork is required, delaying the legalization process. In a way this is good, as we can regulate the beach visitation and behaviour guidelines, and in this case, we are working with the local environment protection agency and another NGO to set the procedures and standards for this activity, in order to minimize the impact of tourism on the turtles and their habitats. We have been providing basic training to local guides, and we hope that in the near future ecotourism will be a good alternative to young local people in the region.

Lots of work, but motivation is high, as usual!!!

The camp at Canto Beach	Canto Beach - Team with Christian, Astrid, our soldiers and our new "team member": a puppy!
Loggerhead nest at Lacacão Beach	Soldiers with freshly caught fish

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