For us humans, sea turtles are still quite unknown creatures, to a large extent: Usually, they become visible only when they return to their home beaches to dig nests and lay eggs. What they do in the meantime, when, where, and how, remains a mystery even to natural scientists (to put it in a somewhat [...]
Industrial fishing vessels off the coasts of West Africa kill thousands of endangered marine animals every year. A representative of the Turtle Foundation attended a conference in Senegal dealing with this urgent problem. There are possibilities existing to significantly reduce the devastating bycatch – but the political will is lacking. What sounds like a bad [...]
When the turtle babies hatch on the beach at night, Maya Visbeck is in her element. As a long-term volunteer for the Turtle Foundation, she experienced an unforgettable summer on Boavista – recommended for imitation! "My name is Maya Visbeck and I was born in the US and raised in Germany, always by the sea. [...]
It’s the kick-start of the 2018 season for Turtle Foundation in Boa Vista and it’s going to be a great year for us here in Cape Verde! We started with the addition of two new vehicles to our fleet, a new Toyota Hilux and a FUSO truck, much needed to improve our capacity to reach [...]
From 23 to 26 April 2018, the annual conference of the national turtle protection network TAOLA (Tartaruga Kriola) took place in Sal Rei on Boavista, Cape Verde, with about 60 participants. TAOLA brings together all non-governmental organizations dedicated to the protection of endangered sea turtles on the various islands of the archipelago, but also nature [...]
The enormous and continuously increasing global consumption of meat is one of the main causes of climate change, deforestation of the rainforests, and extinction of species; word has already spread. What is less well known, however, is that industrialised meat production together with connected fodder production is also massively affecting our oceans and thus, posing [...]
A few days ago we received very sad news. Dozens of people were poisoned after eating the meat of a sea turtle on Sunday, 18 February 2018 during a traditional celebration on the Indonesian Island of Siberut. Three people died of poisoning in the following days. Two of the victims were small children, the third [...]
For 21 years now, the Marine Stewardship Council (MCS) has been certifying sustainable fisheries to enable citizens to decide for environmentally friendly fishing products. However, many conservation organisations and scientists criticise the MSC’s increasingly lax certification practice, which has already led to the certification of fisheries that are apparently using destructive fishing methods. Under the [...]
The Turtle Foundation welcomes two new "collaborators": Karetta and Kelo, two young, lively Labradors, who will support our team on Boavista as conservation dogs from June 2018 on. They were born on 13 June 2017 in the renowned Slovakian kennel Aguzannis and are currently in the care of the Swiss dog trainer Marlene Zähner, who [...]
On Friday, 22 September 2017, during his visit on Boavista S. D. Prince Albert II of Monaco welcomed representatives of our team as well as other local conservation organisations and a group of researchers from Queen Mary University London aboard the research vessel M/V Yersin. The visit of Prince Albert II was part of the [...]
