Project Biodiversity – Saving Sal’s Turtles One Night At A Time

I remember how tired I was. Always so tired. With only a few hours of uncomfortable sleep, it was so hard to push myself up off the sand to start my patrol. Not many people have to start work at 1 in the morning. Slogging up, then down, then up the beach again, sometimes these nights felt endless. But then a soft, crunching noise came from nearby. I threw my hand out to stop my partner, no words spoken. The track across the sand was right in front of us, and there to our right…there she was. At this point in the season I had seen over a hundred loggerheads, but even so, each one felt special. Tiredness forgotten, we crouched down and slowly, painfully slowly, inched up the track towards her. Another nest, another GPS coordinate, another page of data in a well-worn notebook, this was the work. The tiring, monotonous, painstaking … remarkable, incredible, hella rewarding work of being a turtle ranger with Project Biodiversity.

Project Biodiversity

One thing I’ve come across in the few years I’ve been working in conservation is the dichotomy between working to save individuals and working to save a species. Often it feels like you can’t do both. Luckily, there are organisations like Project Biodiversity, or Projeto Biodiversidade, who are able to. Located on the tiny, dusty island of Sal, the most frequently-visited island of the archipelago of Cape Verde, this is a small team of fiercely dedicated conservationists, fighting each and every night to save the loggerhead turtles that call Sal home.

In this age of voluntourism, it can be hard to find an organisation you can trust with your time and money. After all, so many places around the world are more interested in profit than conservation. One tip I will give you is this: if a volunteer project is hands-off, meaning it doesn’t allow its volunteers to cuddle, walk or take selfies with its patients, then chances are they’re worth your time (and money). Hands-off is the best way of ensuring the needs of the animals are put first, not the wants of the volunteers. And you can rest assured – Project Biodiversity is one such project.

Poaching on Sal

Sal has a long and gruesome history with the sea turtles. Poaching has been occurring in Cape Verde for hundred of years. Some may think – who are we to storm the gates and proclaim we know better than the natives? White Saviour Complex is real, but I will staunchly deny that it’s happening here. I will always believe poaching to be a most despicable crime, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand why it happens. On Cape Verde, the poachers are the poorest of the poor. Turtle meat sells for almost nothing, so only the truly desperate risk the penalties. After all, the hunting of sea turtles is illegal, with international law forbidding the trade of turtle meat, eggs or shells. But, you may ask, surely the taking of a few turtles couldn’t be making that much of a difference?

Well, here’s my answer:

The only turtles to come to shore where they can be hunted are females. In one season, a female will come to shore between three and seven times to dig a nest, and will lay on average 100 eggs per nest. That’s around 500 eggs per turtle, per season. They usually come every second year, so over the course of one lifetime, that can be as many as 25 times. 25 times 500 is 12,500. And with the (horrifying) statistic of only 1 in 1000 hatchlings making it to adulthood, that leaves one female contributing around 12 offspring to the loggerhead population. Even with the efforts of the Project Biodiversity team, over 100 turtles are poached each year. That’s not 100 turtles lost, that’s 1200. Global numbers for loggerheads are unknown, but let me tell you, 1200 is not insignificant.

While the primary goal of Project Biodiversity is to patrol the main nesting beaches during the nesting season, this isn’t made easy for them. The current laws restricting poaching are difficult to enforce, and not all beaches can be patrolled. Even on an island as small as Sal – 15km long, 3km wide – some areas are remote and hard to get to. I remember being taken to the north-eastern beaches on a weekly day-time patrol and finding dozens of loggerhead carcasses dotting the coastline. Some were from previous years, but the most depressing were the fresh, still-bloody corpses that hadn’t been there last time they checked.

Locals leading the way

Project Biodiversity knows you can’t just bring in a bunch of foreigners and expect things to change long-term. That’s why they incorporate locals into their work. Half the field assistants each nesting seasons are Cabo Verdean, the other half international conservationists like myself, looking for rewarding field work experience. Even the local military are involved in some of the patrols.

As well as employing locals, community outreach plays a large role in what Project Biodiversity does on Sal. Educational programs in local schools teach about recycling, environmental issues, biodiversity and the wildlife of Cape Verde. While the exotic animals of the world may be familiar to those of us lucky enough to have David Attenborough in our lives, in poorer countries often the native people have never seen their own wildlife. How can you expect someone to want to protect something they know nothing about? One of the most important results of this work has been the increasing pride the Cabo Verdeans feel towards the loggerhead turtle. Now realising that there is greater worth in protecting the turtles instead of poaching them, the loggerhead has become a symbol of the islands. Their image can be found everywhere, from souvenir keychains to murals on restaurant walls. During my time with Project Biodiversity, we even had reports of local surfers fighting off poachers to protect turtles on the beach. Project Biodiversity also knows it’s important to teach pride in your home as well, with regular beach cleans bringing the community together to clear some of the insane amount of pollution washing up on the shores of Sal, most of which comes from other parts of the world, not Cape Verde.

But even with a large team on the ground, there’s still not enough bodies for the amount of work. That’s why the volunteers are so important. Without the paying volunteers who come for a few weeks at a time, some even for a few months, the field team would never be able to cover as many beaches as they do. No one ever patrols alone, so volunteers make up one half of each patrol team.

Patrolling is hard work

And that’s the main job of the field rangers and volunteers: to patrol. Six nights a week from June to October, you walk up and down the main nesting beaches of Sal, acting mostly as a deterrent to poachers. The other important role is to collect data on the tracks and turtles encountered: type of activity, tag numbers of females, GPS coordinates, etc. And then, after a long night patrol, later in the season the work isn’t finished until any nests found in unsuitable locations (too close to the water, in the path of light pollution, feral dogs in the area, etc.) are dug up and relocated to a safer place.

Loggerhead females are very vulnerable out of the water and are therefore very skittish; even the slightest sound or movement can spook them back to the water. Encountering a turtle is an amazing, but nerve-wracking experience. It involves a lot of crouching, crawling in the sand, moving slowly, staying silent and sometimes convincing up to a hundred eager tourists to do the same.

Speaking of eager tourists, the turtles have played a huge role in the burgeoning economy of the islands. Turtle tours bring in droves of people during the nesting season, with guides – both accredited and illegitimate – taking groups of up to 100 people onto the beaches at night to show them the mighty loggerhead. And while the tourism boost is fantastic for Cape Verde, like any good thing, too much has a detrimental effect. I’ve seen turtles racing towards the ocean looking to escape a horde of selfie stick-wielding tourists, untrained guides encouraging physical contact with both females and hatchlings, flashes from cameras confusing and disturbing the turtles, even after we as rangers have said time and time again to turn them off. It was the most frustrating part of the job, but every now and again you would end up having a wonderful conversation with a tourist who just had the most incredible experience of their lives. Because it is incredible. It really is.

But please, if you ever find yourself on a turtle tour, always heed the rangers! It’s their job to protect the turtles and it’s all they’re trying to do.

So if you’re looking for a volunteer project where you can see and feel the direct impact you’re having on a species, Project Biodiversity is it. All you have to do is look at the figures:

2008, the first year of data collected: 376 nests recorded on Sal.

2016: 4,120 nests.

2017, the year I worked with them: 7,634 nests.

2018: 14,940 nests recorded, with 98,195 hatchlings released from the three hatcheries.

2020: a whopping 35,016 nests recorded!

No one could look at these figures and say Project Biodiversity aren’t making a difference in a big way to the loggerhead turtles of Sal.

Interacting with wildlife responsibly:

Never, EVER feed wildlife.

Enticing wildlife with food not only puts yourself in danger, but can lead to wildlife learning to depend on humans to survive or becoming more aggressive – neither of which are a good thing. Human food can also be dangerous to animals, making them ill or malnourished.

Mind your food and dispose of scraps properly.

Feeding wildlife can occur accidentally too, if left unattended or not thrown away correctly. When camping, hiking, or just out in nature, store any snacks or food in proper containers, and don’t leave food lying around unwatched. Even if you think there are no animals around, there probably are. And never leave food next to a rubbish bin. If the bins are full or you can’t find one, take it with you. Don’t be lazy!

Keep your distance.

Wildlife is unpredictable. Unless you’re very familiar with animal behaviour, it can be hard to tell how wildlife is reacting to a situation. Just because an animal looks calm, doesn’t mean it is. Certain times of the year have added dangers, such as mating seasons. Animals can be even more aggressive or volatile during these times, so extra caution is necessary. There have been too many instances of tourists getting too close to wildlife and getting injured, which usually leads to negative consequences for the animal as well.

Don’t touch.

If you’re lucky enough that an animal approaches you of their own free will, please don’t try to pat them. They’re not pets, they don’t enjoy it and it can spook them into doing something aggressive. Your touch can also be dangerous to some animals, particularly marine wildlife who have very sensitive skin. Whales, dolphins and sea turtles can be harmed by the chemicals often found on our skin from lotions, suncream and insect repellent.

Always be aware of your surroundings.

Many wildlife encounters become dangerous simply because the human wasn’t paying attention. When out in nature, always listen out for wildlife, don’t wear headphones, make noise and travel in groups if possible.

Stay calm.

Always important. If you’re surprised by wildlife, remain calm and don’t run. While the original intention of the animal is probably not to hunt, suddenly running or moving away may cause their chase instincts to kick in. Stay facing them and back away slowly. 

For more information, check out the Project Biodiversity website or their facebook page. Each year in February they start recruiting for their summer field assistant positions. If you have a love of turtles, are willing to work your ass off for an amazing organisation and can handle the pressure of little sleep, lots of walking, basic living conditions, hot weather, cold weather, insects and more, I highly recommend applying for either the field assistant or volunteer positions, depending on your level of experience. You won’t regret it.

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