September 24, 2009 - Adolfo Marco
Letter to Turtle Foundation - Good news from Boavista
Dear friends
We have very good news from Sal Rei. The nesting season of loggerheads in Cape Verde has not yet finished but we (Natura 2000) have analised data recorded until the begining of September and have made some predictions for the season that we want to share with you. The news are really great in Boavista. I hope that this success can be extended to the rest of the islands.
In Boavista in all beaches we estimate for the 2009 nesting season more than 20'000 nests (in the previous years we counted less than 14'000). But especially relevant is the decrease in the number of hunted females although there were many more females nesting this season. We have counted until now approx. 180 and expect no more than 220 (overall) for the end of the season. This means 5 % of nesting females. I remind you that in 2007 approx. 1150 females, i.e. 36 % of nesting females were hunted on Boavista beaches.
We are really happy and want to congratulate all of you for your effort to see these good results. By the end of the year we will send to you a more detail finaled report with data y analysis that we are gathering in Boavista. We also would like to know if some of you are founding similar trends.
2009 is going to be very good for turtle conservation but our job has just started. We should try to even improve these results for next years.
Looking forward your comments.
Best wishes and thanks for your cooperation, help and friendship.
Natura 2000
Adolfo Marco
Estacion Biologica de Doçana, CSIC, Seville, Spain
September 4, 2009 - Joana Hancock
"WAR GAMES"
Its been an extremely busy season. Many reasons have led us to be quiet for several weeks, really too busy to contact with the outside world.
Work has been hard. Just a few days after our last post, the patrol found in Canto Beach, at 11p.m., a turtle whose flippers had just been cut off while she was returning to the sea. The turtle was still alive, and in obvious agony. Both soldiers and volunteers, extremely distressed with the situation, considered performing euthanasia, however unsuccessfully, and it took the turtle several hours to die. Moral was lower than never in our camps. Our team of volunteers and soldiers, usually chatty and happy, were quiet for several days, accumulation anger and developing strategies to end this slaughtering. Poaching documented in Canto (a 3Km beach) has been generally low, but poachers have their own strategies, and keep an eye on us at all times, controlling our patrol times, and movements. One of the strategies used is to "steal" the turtles on their return to the water, once they reach the low-tide area of the beach, so that we do not suspect of any poaching activity, as their footprints will be washed away by the incoming tide. Also concerned with the situation, and in appreciation of our work, several locals have been providing us information about the poachers activities, and we are regularly informed that up to 6 turtles get slaughtered every night in the unprotected beaches between Canto, Norte and Porto Ferreira. Members of Natura 2000, another organization, give accounts of poaching being on the rise on their beaches. As Turtle Foundation members, and working with the military, we feel the urge to do immediate action, but still it is impossible to get to all the places with the amount of people we work with. Undercover missions are developed in a regular basis, strategies are developed, still it does not seem enough, we are becoming tired and frustrated sometimes. Not everything is good in Boavista, time is running out for these turtles!!!
The influence of our work in the beaches where we work however is obvious. Sometimes, on the negative side. With the arrival of the rainy season, we have been prevented to reach our beaches on several occasions. Poachers have been taking this opportunity, and 3 turtles were killed in Norte beach last week. This shows that the turtles do not stand a chance when we are not on the beach, but when we are, they are protected.
Generally, our figures show that in the beaches that we directly protect, mortality has been kept under 5%, which has been extremely encouraging!
On the other hand, poachers are moving on to other, non-protected beaches as alternative, where in Boa Esperança and Varandinha the amount of turtles killed here is heartbreaking. The smell of dead turtles invades our bodies and souls as soon as we enter the beach. Two young men reportedly killed 14 turtles in 2 days on Boa Esperança beach, the beach that we intended to protect this year, but couldn't for unavailable funds. We are desperately trying to secure funds for next season, before it is too late for the turtles of this beach.
Motivation comes directly from our numbers, and locals. A lot of local people have approached us during the season, saying that we've been doing a great job. A young doctor, that lives in João Galego, in the North where we work, said that the impact of Turtle Foundation has been enormous. In his account, just two years ago anyone would go to the beaches and kill turtles, and several hundred were taken each season from our now protected beaches, and openly sold door by door. Now, since we've been in the area, although there is consumption and sale, this is much lower and considered as a high risk activity (poaching).
The will is here, motivating goes up and down, but at the end, the future of Cape Verdian's turtles is in their hands. It’s a challenge.
August 1st, 2009 - Joana Hancock
SWEET AND SOUR
The past two weeks have been a roller-coaster of emotions, that went from deep sadness and frustration, to our first arrest! After recording a maximum mortality rate of 5% at one of our most complicated beaches, Lacacão for the last month, we had a nasty surprise when we found evidence of up to 9 turtles being taken from our least problematic beach, Curral Velho, in just two days. The poachers, knowing our limitations in covering effectively the full 4.5Km of beach, due to our limited number of people, took advantage of the situation and captured the turtles at the far end of the beach. Refusing to ignore this situation, our project coordinator, Christian Roder, Julio Rocha and two other members of the military set up a trap the following day, and managed to intercept the poachers, however, due to lack of evidence, had to let them go, to add to our frustration.
Nevertheless, the next night, soldiers patrolling the Lacacão beach saw some suspicious activity during their night patrol, and to their surprise, found a group of people poaching a nest! They managed to arrest one of the people, and this person is now awaiting for his sentence. We look forward to know if something will actually be done, as this would be a major step in law enforcement in Boavista. The situation is getting out of hand, as we also recorded, during this week, two more turtles killed in Canto beach. This is probably related to the religious festivities planned for the local communities this upcoming weekend. We hope that with some carefully planned patrols, we can reduce this threat during this season, and catch some more people in action, before it is too late.
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| Boa Esperança Beach, Boavista |
Not all are bad news! We finally did our first night patrol in Boa Esperança (see picture above), where so far, at least 18 turtles have been slaughtered... this was the first of hopefuly many more patrols. We are blessed that many volunteers are joining our team in August, the peak month, so we will be able to increase the cover and protection of beaches such as Boa Esperança, and maybe Varandinha, on the east coast.
Also, last sunday, with the help of the local tour operators, we organized a major clean-up event in Boa Esperança beach, where at least 500m stretch of beach were left spotless, and were probably cleaned for the first time ever, judging from the amount of bags collected! This was a success, as lots of locals showed up, in an estimate of about 50-75 participants. It was a great day!
So, there are always things to lift up our moral!!! A sour beginning to the week, a sweet taste of good work done by the end :-)
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!!!
June 26, 2009 - Joana Hancock
Its official, our team has recorded the first protected nest and female of the season! The season has had a smooth start so far. Our teams are up and running, protecting so far two beaches: Norte (5.1Km) and Canto (1.9Km). On Saturday the 20th, our first group of 10 soldiers arrived in Sal Rei, representing islands such as Santiago, Brava, Santo Antão, Sal and Boavista. A few days later, we welcomed our first international volunteer, Astrid, and just two days ago, Mathias. Both are German, and will be staying for at least a month.
Training of our first of soldiers and volunteers has been intense, but nevertheless rewarding, since so far we haven't recorded one single slaughtered female in our beaches! Training has included theory lesson, and several day and night visits to the nesting beaches. at the end of the training we finally set up the first two turtle camps, one in Canto beach, the other one in "Norte" beach.
Within just a few days from the beginning of the monitoring, our team has recorded 3 nests in Norte beach, 2 nests in Canto beach, 1 in Lacacão and 6 in Curral Velho. The lack of slaughtered females has been extremely encouraging, especially at the last 2 beaches, since there are great concerns about the presence of over 100 workers staying and working at the construction site of the new RIU mega hotel in Lacacão beach.
This upcoming week, we will be setting our third turtle camp, this time in Lacacão, while plans are underway to start monitoring the beach of Boa Esperança as soon as possible.
April 16, 2009: Turtle Foundation supported by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Turtle Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Without Borders program for their generous contribution to support our Cape Verde conservation and protection program for Loggerhead sea turtles.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the receipt of a grant of $45,000 under the Marine Turtle Conservation Act administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, the Marine Turtle Conservation Act supports projects that contribute to sustainable, effective conservation of endangered sea turtles. This grant will go to fund the formation and implementation of the Cape Verde Sea Turtle Observatory, a coalition of NGO's, research institutions, and Cape Verde government authorities working together to protect Cape Verde's sea turtles and habitats.
We are proud to be associated with and supported by this program.
10 October 2008 – Christian Roder
The Loggerhead nesting season 2008 on Boavista is over and the final group of soldiers has left the island on September 30th. Therefore our patrol work has ended at this point for this season. One could think that it’s getting quieter now, but there is still a lot to do, even without the active protection work at the beaches. Our work during off-season consists of informing the population of Boavista about our protection work, biology and behaviour of sea turtles as well as the importance of protecting them… and of course about how they can contribute in protecting these animals.
Our children’s painting competition regarding the protection of sea turtles was a full success at all schools of Boavista. Now, together with some of the teachers, we have to determine the winners of this competition. At the end of the month we will organize an information event where we will announce the winners and distribute the prizes. We will be supported by the chairman of the local environmental club (Club Ambiental), who is living in our neighbourhood and with whom we have a lively interaction.
29 September 2008 – Christian Roder
Towards the end of our patrol work of this year’s nesting season we had Nuno Lureiro accompanying us. He is a professor from Portugal conducting a sea turtle protection camp in Praia Baixo on the main island “Santiago”. There, he tags sea turtles and takes blood samples for genetic tests. He had taken all his equipment to Boavista and so we got the opportunity to learn these techniques as well.
First the sea turtle is being measured by a specific method (length, width). Then it gets a metal tag on both front flippers, if the turtle is not already tagged ...
... Afterwards a blood sample is taken from the turtle’s neck. We realized how strong Loggerheads are when several men tried to keep the turtle under control during this procedure.
As it had been raining heavily the week before, the time at the beach was everything else but comfortable: mosquitoes have had perfect conditions to proliferate copiously, so it was possible to get a couple of hundred bites a night. Nuno had no doubt about it: those who take blood have to give blood, too…
6 September 2008 – Norbert Hausen
Today it’s Saturday – which means for us tighter beach controls again. As usual, we are taking the soldiers to the beaches and get ready for a long night. Instead of accompanying our soldiers on their patrols, we drive back to Fundo and from there we continue to Cabeca de Tarafes. A very bumpy path then takes us all the way to the lighthouse upon the Mora Negro. From up here we have a fantastic view on a 6 km stretch of beach, from Pointa de Roque all the way to Porto Ferreira.
As our soldiers are equipped with wireless radios, we can communicate with them. Light signals are going to show us their position. We now try to spot “suspicious” lights, which might appear along the beach, ready to lead our soldiers into this direction. A few hours later we head back on the bumpy road, without having detected anyone suspicious.
30 August 2008 - Norbert Hausen
Flooded
Thinking of an arid, desert-like island with vast dunes, one wouldn’t think of what we have experienced during the last few days: heavy rainfalls flooding the area including pathways and roads.
It has been raining for four days already flooding the road to Fundo das Figueiras, where our soldiers are based at. We haven’t been able to conduct our patrols for two days because there was no way we could get to the beaches.
Yesterday though, we gave it another try. As it had stopped raining during the afternoon, we have succeeded in getting all the way to Fundo das Figueiras. We took the first group of soldiers to Canto and on our way back we got into an incredible storm! “…hurry up, hurry up – otherwise the road near Rabil is going to be flooded again….” everyone in the car shouted unanimously. We got almost stuck in the mud and the road had turned into a torrent. The water was splashing all around us and visibility was so poor, we could hardly see anything at all. Luckily we just made it in time to pass the critical spot. It has been raining all night long. Today we have no chance to cross the passage. Our soldiers have to cater for themselves again because there is no way for us to bring them their food.
27 August 2008 – Christian Roder
A Portuguese organization is active on BoaVista this week. They offer a variety of environmental education activities to the kids of Sal Rei and vicinity - the sea turtles of Cape Verde getting special attention within their program. The team leaders together with the children painted beautiful sea turtles on one of the walls in the village centre. They also added sea turtle conservation slogans to the paintings.
During an event at the stadium the children performed turtle dances as well as turtle songs, telling stories about the sea turtle’s lives as well as man-made threats facing them. In agreement with the organization we grabbed the opportunity to present our sea turtle posters as well as our children’s painting competition in favour of the protection of sea turtles.
The kids obviously liked the event a lot. We can only hope that this generation will not be fond of killing sea turtles, no, instead they might be fond of standing up for the protection of these magnificent animals.
23 August 2008 – Christian Roder
This shift we have a group of soldiers, who have been here in June already, at the very beginning of our beach patrols. This means they are well experienced in patrolling the beaches and don’t need any training anymore. Yesterday Miguel and I plus two of the soldiers were on our way on the northern stretch of Porto Ferreira beach.
After about 1.5 km all of a sudden this smell was in the air again…just a whiff of it, hardly noticeable, but unmistakable. The wind carries the smell of dead turtle into our noses. We will never forget this odour after having found ten butchered turtles at the very beginning of our work here on BoaVista. We split our group into two: one is checking the dunes and the other one continues to watch the beach. Just a bit later we find the dead sea turtle – obviously slaughtered only a few days ago.
We examine the carcass and search for footprints. In fact we find some foot prints leading us into the dunes. Again we split our group: one follows the footprints, the other one keeps watching the beach – both keeping in touch via radio contact. Walking along the beach, we can watch several sea turtles laying their eggs into the sand. After they have finished nesting, we check if they are tagged; this information helps us to understand more about their migration patterns.
After a while we hear from Miguel that they have found some sort of hiding place from the poachers in the dunes. We continue our patrol and meet the others again on our way back. Then they show us the poacher’s hide-out. There we find stacked plastic bags and containers, presumably to transport turtle meat. Besides that we discover turtle remains as well as donkey’s footprints.
We destroy the transport containers and try to memorize this place as good as possible … That’s all we can do at the moment. During our future patrols though, we will pay special attention to this specific spot.
21 August 2008 - Reisa La Torra
We are thrilled to announce that we have received a Disney Rapid Response Fund grant in the amount of $5,000 to help us mobilize our beach protection project for nesting Loggerhead turtles in Cape Verde, West Africa. We are very grateful to Disney for helping to support our project.
Here is a picture of Denise Neves, a local teacher on Boavista, talking with our lead biologist Christian Roder. Our program works with schoolchildren to educate them about sea turtle biology and conservation.
Notice the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund t-shirt Denise is wearing!
18 August 2008 - Norbert Hausen
Cachupa Taxi
We start our day having our breakfast on the roof-deck of our house. That’s the only meal of the day we can enjoy unhurriedly (if there is no unforeseen event coming up). At about 10 am we start making preparations for the day: running errands, checking e-mails, there is always something to do. At 12:30 pm we pick up lunch at Bia’s for the soldiers. Bia is running a little restaurant in Sal Rei together with her husband and offered us to prepare the meals for our soldiers, who are doing the beach-patrols for us. Today they get Cachupa, the Cape Verdean national dish. Cachupa is a stew consisting of corn, beans, fish and meat. We scoop portions from the big pot into smaller closable plastic bowls, which can be transported more easily. The distance between Sal Rei and Fundo is 30 km, the roads made out of cobblestone. The sun is shining and we are boiling in the car… After 45 minutes driving we arrive at our base camp and hand over the hot meals to the soldiers. After a short chat with them we head back to Sal Rei in order get everything ready for the nocturnal night patrols.
8 August 2008 - Christian Roder
Last weekend we got the opportunity to appear before the public with our children’s painting competition. Kalle Paltzer, an acquainted artist from Cologne has created 8 different postcards. 4 of them illustrate threats to sea turtles in the water, 4 others display our activities in order to save sea turtles. For that purpose we also distribute coloured pencils to the children.
At short notice we found out about a big environmental exhibition at Cape Verde’s Capital Praia – a great opportunity to test our painting competition at the sea turtle stand. This kind of competition could become a big success because the kids were very enthusiastic about it! Even Cape Verde’s president, Pedro Pires, appeared at our stand in order to see, what it was that made the children so happy: a great opportunity to hand one of our colouring sets over to him!
26 July 2008 - Norbert Hausen
It’s weekend again. For us this means to be even more alert on our beach patrols, because during weekends usually more turtles are being killed. We take the first group of soldiers to the beach of Porto Ferreira and move on with the second group to Canto. Instead of having 4 people patrolling this beach, as we usually do, we decide to have only 2 of the soldiers to watch over this area today. This gives us the advantage of being a larger group and thus we continue our journey to a hard to access beach, south-east of the island. The ride to “Pointe da Roque” is very exhausting and it’s extremely hard to find the right path. Without having reconnoitred the area earlier today and without our GPS it would probably not have been possible to find our way.
Shortly before we get to the beach, we discover fresh donkey footprints in the sand. We ask ourselves if they originate from a wild or a domesticated animal, maybe with its rider on its back…. Within the idyllically located beach we actually find a donkey tied up on a rock; saddlery and transport bags laying next to it. There is no doubt anymore that there is a poacher around trying to find turtles in order to kill them. We decide that 2 people stay right there watching the donkey and our car, the other 4 people go search the beach. Shortly after we find 2 turtles being turned on their backs – probably not long ago. We immediately turn them back over and accompany them walking back into the ocean. Sure enough the poacher must have noticed us and most probably hides somewhere behind the dunes.
Although we comb through the area for hours, we can’t spy him out. We take pictures of the donkey and the saddlery and head back with mixed feelings. At around 3:30 h in the mornig we get back to our headquarters and hit the sack tired to death.
10 July 2008 - Norbert Hausen
After a visit to our colleagues of Natura 2000 (a Spanish conservation organization) at the Ervatao Beach we pick up the soldiers at Fundo das Figueiras where they are accomodated. From there we head straight to "our" protection zone: the beaches of Canto and Porto Ferreira. Tonight we decide to do the first patrol towards the South. After 860 meters (we use GPS) a soldier notices a turtle that is just about to land on the beach. We immediately lay down in the sand so that the turtle does not get disturbed and frigthened. Thanks to clear skies and strong moonlight we do not need our torches to watch this spectacle. When the turtle started to dig the nest
we walk on as there were no signs of any danger (hunters). During our patrol we see again and again fresh turtle tracks coming from the sea and luckily leading back to the Ocean again. These turtles have obviously survived their dangerous trip to the land.
After 2 km we pass again at the beach of „Nho Martin“. This is where last Saturday we discovered the remains of about 15-20 turtles that were slaughtered on this spot about 10-14 days ago. We analyse the tracks and come to the conclusion that no additional turtles were killed here since. On our way back we come across yet another "Tartaruga" returning to the sea. A little later we can see the tracks of the first turtle that we saw nesting this night leading back to the Atlantic. Yet another night at the East coast of Boa Vista with no turtle killings.
7 July 2008 - Norbert Hausen
Like every day we leave Sal Rei at 5pm to Fundo in order to meet the soldiers and discuss the plan for the night. Today the Turtle Foundation staff decided to join the team that will go to the Southern part of Porto Ferreira. At 8pm we leave the tent in Porto towards Nho Martin, a well known nesting beach at the East coast of Boa Vista. After 400 meters we find the first turtle nesting. We radioed to our colleagues in the tent and told them that they should keep an eye on the turtle. Then we continued. About 1.2 km from there we found another turtle. There were no signs of any turtle hunters in the area. So we left the animal alone and continued our march.
A couple of hundred meters further on all of a sudden we smelled a terrible stench. At first we thought that it was garbage that is spread all over the beaches. When we came closer however, we made a gruesome discovery: we were in the middle of a "turtle butchery". Most of the animals were obviously slaughtered extremely brutally about 7 to 10 days ago. The remains of the animals were in the process of rotting already. In the middle of all these turtle corpses: two turtles building their nest. What a surrealistic sight! Despite the stench that was hardly bearable we decided to stay there until the two turtles had laid their eggs and returned to the sea safely. When we finished our patrol that night we all had mixed feelings indeed.
5 July 2008 - Christian Roder
Hello – Bom Dia!!!!
We are thrilled to report some more good news. During our patrol of last night (Norbert, Fatou, two soldiers and me) in the Northern part of Porto Ferreira we had quite some action. In total we encountered five sea turtles in just four hours. We came across one turtle that was already turned on its back by turtle hunters. Luckily, it was still alive and unhurt. The hunters were not far away (we saw lights from a vehicle at some distance). They obviously planned to take the turtle with them instead of slaughtering it on spot. We turned the frightened and helpless animal around on its belly and followed it on its way back to the sea.
| Just a few feet away we discovered yet another Tartaruga (sea turtle in Portugese), which was busy laying eggs. As we knew that the turtle hunters were nearby we stayed with the turtle and guarded it until it finished its business. What an incredible experience! |
(c) Harald Mielke
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27 June 2008 - Norbert Hausen
At 10am we left Sal Rei in the rented four-wheel-drive towards Fundo das Figueras. After a drive of 45 minutes on cobblestone streets we arrived at Fundo where we could evaluate the progress made in relation to the preparation of the house which will serve as outpost and accommodation for the soldiers. Currently the water tank on the roof is being cleaned and sealed. We made final arrangements with the local cook who shall take care of the meals for the soldiers. Thereafter we continued towards Pointa de Roque. In order to become more familiar with the terrain and the rather difficult road conditions we drove ourselves. 
The “street” to Roque consists of dirt roads, rocky and bumpy areas as well as sand dunes. No way to get there without a 4x4 vehicle. If it wasn’t for our mobile GPS programmed beforehand we are not sure if we were able to find the beach at Pointa de Roque at all.
At first sight it is a beautiful long sandy beach. But as soon as we take a closer look we become aware that it is rather a turtle cemetery, just like so many other beaches on Cape Verde.
After a short break we headed back to Fundo and further on to the most Northerly part of our zone: Baia de Gatas. Nothing but a few huts occupied by fishermen waiting for their next “shift”. Behind one of these huts we made a gruesome discovery: the remains of two recently slaughtered sea turtles in the process of putrefaction were dumped in ditch full of debris. The smell is unbearable. A quick picture and off we are.
Another negative highlight of our trip: a short visit to a beach called “Canto”. This beach is dotted with turtle carapaces – silent reminders of last year’s slaughtering.
This is a clearly a hotspot for our patrolling activities.