2011 Community Workshop a great success

The annual workshop held on Sal to help to develop employment and skills in conservation activities on other islands finished on Thursday after an intensive four days.

The participants from Santiago, Maio, São Nicolau, São Vicente, Fogo, Santo Antão & Sal learned technical skills as well as how to structure a project in a way that could attract money to benefit their communities.

One of the participants from Santo Antão was so dedicated that he was immediately hired after being unemployed since leaving the army.

The gruelling four days included late night patrols and early morning patrols as well as theoretical sessions where delegates had a lively exchange of ideas.

The team visit the hatchery

Some had experience in turtle conservation and other environmental activities which involve youth and community development and were able to pass on their success stories.  SOS Tartarugas hopes that all go home with ideas to inspire more activities.

Learning about fundraising

SOS Tartarugas will follow up this workshop with visits to each island later in the summer.

Baby turtles born two months ahead of schedule!

To our great surprise SOS Tartarugas Rangers found hatchling tracks on Costa Fragata on Sal on the 30th June 2011.

Hardly believing their eyes, they uncovered the nest and found several hatchlings still inside.

In general, the nesting season starts in mid-June and the first hatchlings are born in the middle of August.  For this nest to have hatched the turtle must have nested in late April or early May - two months earlier than expected!  Nobody knows why this has happened but you could speculate that it could be due to the individual turtle or even to climate change.

There were 72 hatched eggs inside the nest and of those that were born many went in the wrong direction possibly due to the light of the houses from Santa Maria which disorientates turtles.

After a long search the dedicated Rangers found five more baby turtles which were lost in the dunes and these were then released into the sea.

Filhotes de tartarugas nascem 2 meses antes do tempo!

Turtles born 2 months earlier than expected!

June 29, inesperadamente, o primeiro ninho de Tartarugas Caretta caretta na praia de Costa Fragata, na Ilha do Sal.

As tartarugas nasceram de um ninho que não tinha sido identificado. De uma forma geral, a temporada de desova ocorre em meados do mês de Junho e os primeiros filhotes nascem a meio do mês de Agosto, já esta tartaruga subiu para desovar no início do mês de Maio, dois meses antes do esperado! Não sabemos a razão pela qual isto aconteceu mas poderá ter a ver com alteração de comportamento desta tartaruga em particular ou com alguma alteração no clima, no entanto não temos dados concretos que confirmem estas suspeitas.

O ninho foi detectado por Rangers da SOS Tartarugas enquanto faziam a patrulha matinal à procura de rastos de tartarugas adultas, ficando surpresos quando encontraram rastos de tartarugas bebes. Foram contabilizados 72 ovos eclodidos, 59 ovos não eclodidos e 5 nati-mortos, o que se traduz numa taxa de sucesso de 52,94%.

Os filhotes emergiram durante a noite, quando os rangers chegaram, por volta das 6 horas da manhã, detectaram inúmeros rastos, sendo que alguns iam na direcção contrária ao mar. Mais uma vez a iluminação das residências de Santa Maria provocou a desorientação dos filhotes. Após uma busca foram encontrados 5 filhotes, que andavam perdidos nas dunas, e foram libertados no mar.

SOS Rangers volunteer at dog clinic

As if they didn't have enough to do, our brilliant volunteers have been spending their time off helping at the animal clinic in Santa Maria organised by SOS Cachorros & Gatos. 

The clinic moves to Espargos later today. 

New conservation project in Santo Antão

Congratulations to Silvana Roque and her team at Projecto Vito who have started a turtle conservation project in Porto Novo, the main town on the island of Santo Antão.

Santo Antão is a mountainous, rural island, the most northerly in the archipelago.  It has seen very little development and has no airport but it is known for incredible hiking and bird life.

Projecto Vito has been active in Fogo for a couple of years and their first activity in Porto Novo was a training session.

Supported by the City Hall and the Port & Maritime Delegation, the training was attended by 60 people including youth, teachers, scouts & marine police.

Community Workshop started today

As part of our commitment to developing conservation activities in communities throughout Cabo Verde, the annual SOS Tartarugas Atelier (workshop) started today in Sal.

The purpose of the workshop is not only to teach technical skills but to inspire communities with ideas on fundraising, outreach and educational activities.
With the kind cooperation of the Centro Cultural in Santa Maria, the workshop began with sessions on sea turtle biology and the importance of collecting data. 

Delegates work on designing data collection forms

Almost all the islands are represented with the delegates from Fogo, Santiago, Maio, São Vicente, Santo Antão, São Nicolau and of course, Sal.

Tonight the participants will camp at Serra Negra and hopefully see a nesting turtle.

SOS meets the President of Timor

SOS were invited to a meeting by the President of Timor during his visit to Cabo Verde.  Sr Jose Ramos-Horta funds turtle conservation in his own country and was eager to exchange ideas that may help their fledgling project.

The meeting was attended by Jacquie Cozens, Neal Clayton and Joana Gouveia and the topics ranged from how to raise money to the use of hatcheries.

Timor is situated north of Australia and was a colony of Portugal until 1975 when it was annexed by Indonesia.  Following a brief rule by the UN, the country became fully independent in 2002.

The seas around Timor are extremely rich and diverse in corals and marine life and two species of turtles nest there (hawksbill & olive ridley).  Thankfully the president told us that there is not a strong tradition of hunting and eating turtle and the populations are stable.

Tarrafal, São Nicolau launch turtle protection campaign

The Câmara Municipal (City Hall) Tarrafal, São Nicolau launch this year's turtle protection campaign today reports A Semana.  The City Hall have had great success over the last few years and have succeeded in wiping out hunting of nesting turtles on these very important beaches.  A Semana article.