TURTLE-VIVE

Summer 2004
Ervatao - Boa Vista, Rep. Cabo Verde

A story of turtle love in two parts
Island impressions and nightwatch followed by return to the “encampment”
and struggle to the sea

Written and photographed by Nigel Collingwood
Diving Instructor and Marine Ecologist

Produced for the Office of the Environment of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura
Consejeria de Medio Ambiente

An adventure in the study of the survival of the turtles on the Cabo Verdian island of Boa Vista ... this is a philosophical view of the scientific studies being made on the Loggerhead Turtle (caretta caretta). We went there as volunteers, some of us never left (in heart & mind) – and some of us will go back again and again. To join an adventure group of 6-10 people and visit the locations, see the valuable work, become in touch with turtles and more, click on Travel. This is an introduction to the experiences awaiting you ... there is much technical detail involved, but not all of it is included. This is an overview.

Ervatao is an enchanted place ... a bay of beautiful white sands and exquisite volcanic rocks. The encampment is a massive net tent with two canvass tents beneath which are for sleeping and quartermastering. It sits between two ribeiras, one of which is drenched in palm trees and is said to be a farm of over 500 years old. We are some 100 meters from the beach line and to the left as one sits beneath the sun net is a small pond which is visited daily by a grey heron (Garca Real), that spends hours standing or stalking the small fish which race across the shallow surface. Sometimes a white egret (Garcilla Bueyero) joins in, at a respectable distance, and occasionally a reef egret arrives to share the silver meal.

A highlight is the arrival almost punctually of the Osprey (el Guincho) around 08.00 in the mornings. The bird flies for hours along the bays scanning the shallows and diving for fish which once in a while it catches and retires to a point to consume its meal. In the ribeira amongst the palms is a pair of nesting kestrels which one is recalled to as they fly somewhat noisily around especially at the slightest human movement on the ground.

Along the beach are a variety of smaller sea birds, sandpipers, turnstones and lapwing. Once a frigate bird flew past and one called a “tropic” bird identified by its two long singularized white tail feathers. There was also a visit from the endangered “guirre” (alimocha - Egyptian vulture creed) which swooped lazily and low over the encampment one day at the same time the osprey was turning circles over the bay.

This is a wild and luxurious environment which is swept at this time of the year by moderate winds to the accompaniment of the long waves thumping down on the perfect sand. What is most charming of this rustic environment are the turtles that come ashore at night to lay their eggs. This is essentially why we are here, to help with the studies of the loggerhead turtle.

The ribeira of palms is sentinelled by a huge sand mountain, the long spindly coco palms wave gently across the dunescape, beneath a perfect blue sky. Sometimes cloudy, but not often. The signs of human settlement are sparse and sadly in much disrepair. Long walls of volcanic rock and stone slabs run a jagged line across the extraordinary rugged landscape, scenically sparse but full of natural sculptures and textures. Carpets of coarse brown, grey and black stones in an almost perfect placement of size and distance. Though not a mountainous island the profile of escarpments and such rugged lava wrought heights create distance and reference.

Moving across the landscape these extraordinary twists and jaggedness of the rockstone is highlighted by occasional sentinels of black basalt rock, often sitting in the massive sand hills along the coast going north. Here at this time of the year-July-the heat can be a furnace and draws the fluid from the body without trace in the constant wind.

The coastline is a series of bays and points exhibiting cascades of various coloured stones and rocks and chunks of coral lava thrown up by the sea amongst huge boulders and slabs of bubble blown lava. Empty seashells whole and broken, worn to a polished jewel adorn the myriad pools and miniature craters. Here too, is history, some 100million years of it, as the fossils entrapped in the lava rock show. From single shells to colonies of mussels trapped in an almost permanent sculpture, only time and the sea erodes the sharp edges into smooth pockmarked lumps, from the constant movement of the wave action behind the surf-line.

Beneath the waves it is shallow for a long way out ... waves break well off-shore before resuming their peaks of turquoise water finally breaking across the rocky shoreline and surging up the golden sands. White surf frothing at the edges, glistening, swirling and pouring off ledges back out to meet the following wave.

There is an abundant marine life of fish and corals which will delight the snorkeller on days of lesser wave activity ... water clarity in these wave ruffled shallows is about 8 meters. These are some of the many beautiful moments in moments of the day ... and consequently the night!

Thus the night is taken up with turtle contact-depending much on the tide and moon relationship, we wait in the darkness for the big “black bubble” to emerge from the surf and drag herself from swirls of frothy foam up the beach leaving the characteristic trail towards the soft white sands above the tide line. Sometimes she will just come onto the beach and then return to the sea ... other times they will create incredible trails amongst the mini dunes stopping to test the ground. These trails can have several intentions but leave no nest.

Nests can be in various terrain differences ... if the beach is shallow and the full tides flood over, it is likely the nest will be destroyed. It will also almost invariably attacked by burrowing crabs, which make colonies in the nest. These nests contain between 90-100 eggs although the average is 85 ... and are some 40cm deep.

The process of making the nest hole is quite long and very absorbing to watch ... using her rear flippers, she clears a flat space and begins to grab sand by curling her flipper and lifting it to one side as the other flipper goes in to repeat the operation. She balances on the other flipper and that sand is forcefully brushed away as she follows through with the repeat movement, digging down an almost perfectly round hole. This process takes a good 20-30 minutes of “blind digging”-all done by feel.

There is a pause before the cloaca is poised to eject the eggs in singles or clusters of 2-3-4. The slightly soft shells plop down into the warm sand and are somewhat smaller than a ping-pong ball. After having laid her eggs, again a process of some 20-30 minutes, she begins the long job of filling the nest with sand and pressing it down with her rear flippers and body weight.

Finally the nest is camouflaged by copious amounts of surface sand and any objects that may be within the vicinity. Swishing sand and small stones, it is not recommended to sit in the near ... her front flippers are extremely strong and one realizes this during the next stage of contact.

The turtles are tagged on each front flipper and injected in the front right flipper is a chip with bar code transmitter – thus all contact turtles are scanned for identification, Inclusive, the body size is measured across and along the carapace and a check for parasites and damages/injuries – for instance, a mutilated rear flipper, quite a common occurrence ... females can have carapace damage from shark bites or mating with the males which spend their time at sea and do not roam the beaches.

Females produce eggs several times during the period of June to September and will lay an estimated 400 plus eggs having copulated with different males and thus the batches will have different paternity. The average nest is about 85 eggs but amounts up to 145 have been counted ... we had one of 133 eggs!

The counting of the eggs takes place directly at the laying where a surgical gloved hand is placed underneath the cloaca and both mental and mechanical counts are made. During the count the turtle is still and unaffected by voices and the small battery torches set into the sand to observe the process ... turtles are essentially deaf.

What is imperative about this whole process is the first contact point where one visually sees the big black bubble coming ashore or following up a sand trail to where she may be busy looking for a site. In this process no lights or near movements should be made until she proceeds to dig her hole. Sometimes when working with one female another comes ashore directly or close by either the egg laying or post laying process and lights have to be extinguished and movement frozen or minimised ... this can be difficult with examination turtle struggling to free itself from the restraining fork across its shoulders, dug into the sand.

Minimum stress is the preamble, though after the struggle the turtle makes her way to the sea clearly exhausted from her efforts and from her examination ... unfortunately one cannot cuddle a turtle and say “there-there”! Apart from being hard, heavy, sandy and smelly, it has extraordinary powerful jaws.

The turtles come ashore in singles but occurs sometimes that 2-3 will choose the almost same point of beach to send the team scurrying around and working on which will proceed to make the nest first ... on return we can run into 7-8 trails more, some of which may only have been landings ... simply the turtle came ashore did a U turn and returned to the sea ... others may be just intentions or even nests. The females may not always be ready to lay despite coming ashore and even digging holes.

Our work is during the night hours from around 8pm to 5/6am depending on the tide. Sometimes we leave at 8pm till 1-2am ... or from 1am till 5-6am ... dawn! There have been times when we worked with turtles in the morning light where both turtle and observers were in clear view. The days can be long and energy absorbing ... the heat of the day saps the energy and the nights can be sultry, windless and make sleep difficult. We sleep on our own mats or li-lo under mosquito nets, though during the sojourn, there was very low mosquito activity. The daytime flies were a nuisance, but not excessive ... the daytime however was largely our own and most people chilled out on the beach and under the palm shelter.

We made walks up the coast to “turtle bay” where we could see the smaller green turtle (chelonia mydas) swimming in the long swells. The coastline is full of turtle trails though we only monitored 3 beaches ... from the 21 days sojourn by halfway we had contact with some 90 turtles and located some 80 plus nests, which are marked with a slim numbered pole ... by close of play we marked to 199 nests and this was not all.

Hatchings will be sometime from September through October where the beaches will be a chaos escaping turtles under the eyes of awaiting sea birds, crows and into the jaws of small reef sharks. The survival rate to adulthood is estimated at 1 to 1,000. And of course the big predator being “fisherman” where growing or adult turtles bring meat and tourist value in carapace and body parts.

In the hearts of mankind..Wo-Man..there is emotion & love, sympathy & affinity, care & affection, respect & integrity, pride & dignity. On the other hand there is violence, exploitation, disregard, greed and more. If one believes in the alternative process of life, meaning, there exists the opposite, then the greater care from the lesser care of our environment is the more valid pursuit.

The struggle of the turtle to the sea is no different than many others, but we have not helped it over the decades in our typical rash to bombard the coastal areas with tourist infrastructure ... there were once turtles on the beaches of Gran Canaria.

We, better struggle to improve and find equilibrium than destroy and dis-equilibriate, which is not a struggle but a complacency that destroys inevitably. We may make the struggle less and leave nature to her better work and make a “better job of it” ourselves by letting this process naturally un-fold. There are plenty of alternatives for us ... and so there are some who have observed and learned better, with these people there is always hope.

The emotion and affinity with the turtles in this rustic paradise shows us up for what we are ... I was at least useful in an important study and have the humility to say that I am proud to have shared it all with some very fine people.

Our camp life and expertise with the turtles was provided by three Spanish monitors whose dedication and affinity for this work is to be entirely respected and admired ... Nuri, Cristi & Dani (Daniel), who provided tireless support & taught us with care and patience the way to work with these extraordinary creatures.

We were also supported by some characterful and friendly Boa Vistans ... Chifo, the fisherman & carpenter; Fortu, our baker and camp maintainer; Juliao, the 6ft athlete who did everything ... they carried out functions and tasks with camp support but who also shared the sleeping quarters, ate & drank at the same table and prepared special little meals sometimes, for us the 14 volunteers that came from Asturias, Galicia, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Lanzarote & Fuerteventura, where I live.

During the process of our work, we helped our local lads to build the “hatchery” where nests in danger will be re-located to point in front of a little beach and beautiful underwater environment ... hopefully these little turtles will escape to a greater chance of survival and enrich our world of biodiversity.

The following mornings we awake sleepy eyed and sandy to another beautiful day in paradise and go looking for spoors we missed or did not make contact with the night before. The turtle leaves a particular pattern in the sand and this is important in establishing the whereabouts of the nest under the large area of sand she has used to camouflage ... there is an in-spoor and an out-spoor clarified by the arrow effect of her front flippers.

Locating the eggs means digging down over the estimated area where with luck we will feel the softer warm sand and the odour of the eggs which is somewhat musty & pungent. When the nest is located, the eggs are not handled or counted, but simply marked with the numbered pole at the rear of the batch ... eggs in front to sea.

Nests can be in profusion of one location, having 4-5 almost on top of each other ... sometimes in the hand digging which can play havoc with your nails and fingertips because of sharp stones and shells, we find the remains of an old nest with the darkened shells and contents of “unsuccessfuls” as well as the twisted empties of the ones that at least reached the surface.

Some of the spoors or trails can go for hundreds of meters in-land or along the coastal dunes or, red earth areas of low ground which flood on very high tides. Turtles can have many difficulties including strandings caused by loss of direction ... they cannot hear the sea ... choosing wrong ground where the sand is dust fine and many slab rocks ... long tenuous roots of the peripheral vegetations ... finding rubbish clutter washed on-shore ... or worse, old pieces of never degrading fishing net which can ensnare them.

Some turtles come ashore and hit the right spot, sink their hole, drop their eggs, fill, camouflage and get back into the waves. Some females make such a good job of camouflage that the scrape area can be some 2 meters from her entry point, which is where she initiates the nest ground. She can “enter” and turn twisting her abdomen, left or right, then make a sharp left or right turn after pressing down the nest with ambient sand.

Thus finding the nests can be quite difficult ... we do not rip the area apart, but dig down in “tubes” to the estimated nest depth, then feel around in a circular motion with the fingertips until one touches “eggpot”.

The numbered marker pole is entered behind the batch so that the nest faces the sea ... some nests can be surprisingly shallow where the female accidentally bursts eggs on top which invariably attracts crabs ... or the turtle has a second or late laying of just one or a few eggs which are not included in the main nest. These have to be carefully re-located with the main group to acquire the heat to generate the fertilisation.

The damaged eggs we throw into the sea and cover the area with fresh sand to prevent the crab and bird activity ... mosquitoes also find the warm moist atmosphere conducive to their nefarious activity, by laying eggs in the broken eggs of the turtle.

The juveniles hatch and struggle to the surface after 2-4 days shaping and feeding off the white of its egg and are about 40-50mm from nose to tail. The struggle has thus begun for the turtle, to the sea and to further survive into adulthood.

The body clock of your average human gets confused and begins to change to meet the demands of the work schedule. The “voluntary element” plays an important role in the projects concerned with the care of wildlife which all seem to be under-funded at the front line of things. Thus the affinity-phobe comes in answer to the calling and endures the rigours of the paradise with the affinity of working with these curiously beautiful creatures ... the learning curve can be immense and it is all “hands-on”...

Turtle-Love ... Turtle-Touch ... Turtle-Myrtle, the struggle of ourselves to empathise with a worthy cause in which we feel involved, hands-on, and not political or religious or commercial fodder. Here reigns a quality of life, integrity, “cariño” and mostly (but not always) fellowship in beginning to understand ... about life & nature

This is not the only worthy cause on earth ... there seems to be so very many. The wonders of the earth seem to be out-numbered by the wonders of how humans manage to mis-manage and consequently deceive themselves and be deceived by the deceivers who plunder the national purse or euro-purse on fabulously cultured PR projects that say everything but do nothing ... and scrimp on matters that begin to do everything and get little or nothing said about.

Whilst the world in general falls down about us to the progress of banality, disruption and destruction of our precious environment and natural resources ... and hundreds of thousands of human beings die of un-necessary starvation because it is politically convenient and media wise, newsworthy in an occultist way, in some little “pockets of paradise” that still hang-on, like endangered species, good work goes on giving us rays of critically important hope ... there is still much to be done in both paradise and the world at large. There are good humans out there and by their grace we may yet survive.

To join a Turtle Group in this vicinity, you need to be emotionally reliable, with initiative, be inquisitive, be prepared to rough-it, enjoy paradises and want to do it for them (the turtles) too. Leave your trappings of consumerism behind, bring the rucksack, air mattress and mostly cotton wear. Alcoholics, hypochondriacs and those hooked on famous fast foods should not apply. Ages from 21 to 61 ... volunteers, volunteer, do not come just to say “been there , done that, what's next?” ... your help is valuable and appreciated, appreciate that your help is anticipated, if not somewhat expected. Oh yes, you will need a useful little torch & some extra batteries in this non-electrified zone.

For full details and a “to bring” list, see Travel.

Part Two

The Paradox

It is day three of the return to Ervatao and not a lot has happened in the superficial sense, but somehow lots has happened ... the first two days were a mixture of return and revive where we, the new team of volunteers got to learn the ropes, me included, as things had changed somewhat.

Ervatao is curiously remote and un-inhabited ... one does not expect much to happen, but it does. On the extreme tides of August & September the moon is filling fast, the sheen off the shallow waves that roll lazily onto silvered sands meet little “black pebbles” paddling the slick surface whilst ghost crabs intend to stop and devour the little ‘life' that has burst through 40cm of sand on its ... struggle to the sea.

Around the nest site the tracks of the newly emerged baby turtles create a massive texture of trails that spread outwards in a drunken burst ... the waves, not excessive send long exploring surfwater up the glistening beach meeting the struggling mass of baby turtles, pushing them 200 paddle-steps back up the beach to ‘have another go' at getting out of the on-coming surf roll and away into deeper water.

The moon is like a flare, an enormous sheen of intense diffused light in a dark sky of scudding clouds ... slick waves rolled in, a continuous thunder on the massive expanse of sand.

The sunset on the third evening had been so evocative that anyone with a camera was “shooting” ... the mixed group of volunteers included specialists who were, in simple terms, studying the rotation of the sex model ... with turtles it depends on how warm the nest is that will determine whether or not it will be a “male majority” or a “female majority”. The pivot temperature decides the issue, cooler, males ... warmer, females.

It was the same third night that we let loose 105 little lives into the big blue ocean after we weighed & measured a sample group of 10 and two went to the scientist for tissue samples for the studies on multi-paternity since the females mate with various males over the season ... although they do not have any known recurring partner. Females become in season every two years and spend their non-mating time in their zone of the sea preparing for the journey to the egg-laying beaches of the Cabo Verde Islands.

The islands of Macaronesia form living zones and migratory routes to the preferred beaches for egg-laying ... although many of these desired beaches have disappeared under the onslaught of tourist bums ... These zones include the Azores, Salvage Ils, Madeira, the Canary Ils and the Cabo Verde Ils. Within the framework of this are a number of marine projects and this turtle programme, Natura 2000, supported by the Cabo Verde Island government and the Cabildo of Fuerteventura has been underway for some 7 years now, working in a narrow protected zone of Ervatao, Ponto Cosme & Calheta beaches of Boa Vista ... Their struggle, is against the poaching and fishermen catching turtles at sea, despite its protected species status.

I began by explaining that little would appear to happen in such an un-developed area. This is of course true & false depending on your view and living style. Yet it is, an active zone of natural events and our activities are quite involved ... living the simple camp life is not without demands, complications and an input ... things had also changed from the previous sojourn ... living “turns of duty” is quite seriously more demanding than doing shift work.

Whilst some of us do an 8pm-to 1am (officially) shift, others will do a 5.30am till 10.30am or thereabouts. Meanwhile those having slept depart from those going to sleep. Body routines get changed and various dysfunctions in health can occur ... this can put working groups at shortage of manpower and even overtax the monitors who have to be pretty much everywhere at the same time. And it did occur.

The work may be for some, after a week, boring. Again it is a question of up-bringing and life style. It can be tiring but far from boring. Each evening/night is loaded with highlights, anticipation and amusing complications ... the half expectancies of a straight forward delivery can be alternatively very different. When a female begins clearing her patch, we sit and wait for the excavation of the day warmed sand. She may not pursue this for reasons I have previously described and during her few or several intentions we may be visited by two or three or more which all may be straight forward deliveries, but we sit with the first one to see it through and complete the inspection even if she did not lay eggs.

Meanwhile the others may also “dither around” or be busily laying and all have to be checked out if physically possible. It is the practice/intention to register four nests including any that may have been sealed and the female gone. Our time is then spent establishing the nest in the camouflaged area.

On our walks we had also to inspect the “fenced” sites ( a ring of plastic garden mesh about 30-40 cm high above the nest site in front of the marker pole) for the night arrival of the juveniles. Each nest has been from origin egg counted and monitored during the calculated incubation period of 45 days and so there is an expectancy of the same or near number of births from a healthy un-attacked nest (crabs) although there are almost invariably those eggs that did not fertilize.

One may wonder why we do all this and certainly I have subsequently met people who think one is rather mad and of what importance is it ... In the first place it is essential to have a pride and regard for our environment, which has been devoured over the recent past by a voraciousness of consumption of raw materials, the consequent processing effluence and the damage to the environment from air pollution to water poisoning. The environment is everything for our emotive stance of “survival” ... everything we do to damage (and it happens day in – day out) our environment, damages not only our future but also the intrinsic chain of events in nature, which is the foundation of everything that happens here on earth.

One of the these links amongst many is the plight of the turtle and especially the Loggerhead-caretta caretta (in the scientific bible of the loggerhead turtle it is sadly stated that this species will not see out man ... .despite the fact that it is a pre-historic creature) and thus by an insidious destruction of coastal areas (principally beaches) by ravenous commercialists of tourism ... bums on seats, bums on beaches, bums in bars, = profits. These beaches had been the nesting areas for eons of time, until man decided to turn them into profits at any cost to the effects on the natural environment.

It is with these un-principled activities that the more conscientious of mankind recognizes the importance of trying to prevent destructions and find equilibrium in our survival, their survival and the survival of the massive glory of alternate life that makes this world so wonderful. But then again, there are none so deaf as those that won't hear ... nor for that matter, none so blind as those that will not see.

Shall we say, that we do this because it is now necessary and it is a communion with nature that will help us to learn and equilibrate. This is an activity not confined to the scientists, but to the eco-conscious and aficionados of the natural world.

We do this also because many of us have come to love this and similar experiences and find that “expanding relationship” with our environment only brings good! Good learning, good understanding, good opportunity, good results, good deeds and more. Preventative action, re-education, re-allocation (of protected zones) reproduce a new and growing balance.

On the fourth night some of us were on the massive Ponto Cosme beach, (and again with the extreme highs & lows of the tides) the moon intensive, played a hide and seek with the clouds, the curious dull white of the sand became enriched as the moon showed her face again from behind great cotton lumps of pale grey rimmed cloud,..shadow clouds across the beach, the dark vegetation line a border, the sea slick and silky ... fat fingers of whipped cream surf in the undulations of the sand.

We had already done a full turtle run from exit (of the sea) to re-entry ... there had been some “showings” and the next, as we huddled around the last nest area in the firm land warmed wind, made her way in, raising and lowering her head, almost sniffing the air and making straight for me. But directly!

At about one meter she stopped to “sniff the air” but looked directly at me sitting against a clump of dune vegetation ... her big eyes set out against the sandied beak, a curiously alien head shape in the capricious shadows of the moon, her hide & seek game.

The turtle came in closer, but really inches from me sat cross-legged on the damp warm sand ... she looked directly at me, a long stretched neck gaze, almost a greeting ... I had to ease myself ever-so-gently to the right and I was surly reflected in the moonlight ... if one sits/stands still she will not really notice, but even when I did move (ever-so-gently), she looked me straight in the eye. I could reach out and stroke her head ... it was a temptation, but in-appropriate.

The way she had moved, looking and “sniffing” the air from the water's edge which was not so far at that point on the beach, was as though she did know this place and the stranger (in white shorts & t-shirt) was not a problem ... the cynics would say rubbish or some bland mediocracy ... the romanticists would say “communion” and as an ecologist I would say, that we were in harmony, in equilibrium with our surroundings, with our share of the atmosphere. And in all this we had to give her pain, that we might help her ... tagging produces a noticeable reaction ... thus even those of us who try are not always reaching desired solutions.

But there is this intimacy with the turtle, a big strong beasty thing that exits the water a glistening “big black bubble” that forms part of the surprises in the paradoxical environment of these beaches on this ruggedly serene island of Boa Vista ... not a lot seems to happen here, but it does.

I am reminded of “ less is more”, the less we have, the more we (ought/should/be obliged to) take care of it ... here we have more because we have less to distract us and fill our time with intrusions of consumerism, banalities, towers of Babylon etc ... and the less we have the more we are able to make do without or become more inventive.

The days can be so rich, one drowns in its wealth and is reborn almost immediately to re-affirm that you deserve to be here, so here is some more of the same, but different. Nature, how she changes her facade every moment ... her sincerity is in that she will do it on a scale of 1-10 and consequently 10-1. One sits at any time of day or night when dramatics are under way and is absorbed by the moving beauty.

We sat waiting on the fifth night, for our “prize” to lay her eggs ... the beach, which in daytime has been tide-washed and thus almost un-marked was becoming raked with tracks ... ”big black bubbles” kept appearing, making little or long assays up the beach, then doing U-turns back to the sea ... they are called “panas” (in Spanish for para nada- for nothing). We had contact with 32 turtles ... a couple of nights later, where there is normally plenty of tracks, it was bare.

Thus we walked to the end of Ponto Cosme seeing more “panas”, before hitting heavy traffic in zone 3. What was remarkable on that occasion was that we had a turtle in the low sand where the high tides cross onto the land behind, thus the sand below is water-logged ... after digging her hole which quickly became enlarged from sliding sand and a pool of water several centimetres deep we had to take priority action ... thus I counted out 85 eggs from this pool into a plastic bag for transfer to the hatchery, where there is a greater chance of fertilization.

Whilst this was happening more “panas” came in and made long tracks into the dune area ... it is important to understand that wherever possible these “u-turners have to be observed and if deeply ensconced in the dunes we may have to assist a way back ... as if this was not enough, a second female came in and began her nest within 25 cm of the previous turtle and thus after waiting a long excavation, 80 eggs were counted out into another plastic bag and had to be carried direction the hatchery with the previous lot !

On the return leg, the wide area of the low beach that leads back onto the brown earth becomes a quagmire of deep slippery mud. The surface lightly hardened by daytime sun, has no surface tension and we were dismayed to see a struggling turtle at the end of a long black criss-crossing track, basically needing our help to shove her out towards firmer ground ... but this took ages and eventually she had to be hand lifted down towards the surf.

Well after re-planting the eggs from two different females virtually in the same place, at the hatchery, we arrived back at camp at just gone 4am ... dawn was not far off and within the hour and a half, the early morning “prospection” teams would be sliding out quietly (did I say quietly ) to see our busy night of worked & un-worked tracks. Thus their job is to establish the nests, mark them and also check the little mesh enclosures for surfaced baby turtles.

In my previous work, part 1, I described the method of restraint for inspection (photo gallery also). In my absence for some 6 weeks between, there had been a noticeable change in the inspection system. Apparently an American woman had visited the Boa Vista camp with the latest in American time saving techniques.

What originally occurred was to let the female lay her eggs, fill her nest and camouflage in peace, as though it was also an important part of the ritual ... then swiftly move in on her exit, do the necessaries and let her be on her way.

It was always evident that placing the tags brought a visible shock of pain to the turtle ... this process now takes place in the time she fills the nest and taps down, sometimes a window of 5-10 minutes ... The front flipper is scanned for the P.I.T or chip, if none then it must be injected ... and the tags pressed home in the second of the large lateral scales if whole, although many have ripped scales from previous tags lost through however ... this tagging I repeat has always been painful.

However, in 7 out of 10 cases that I especially observed, thus handled, there was an overall shortening of the tapping down and also of the camouflaging ... the time effective part may be construed only when the tags go in last ... In other cases there was a noticeable shortening of tapping down procedure and no camouflage ... and in three cases the turtle left her eggs essentially exposed. We still had to measure and finish the job ... it seemed they were quite distressed and one was a large specimen with a carapace just short of one meter ... her head would not go through the stop prongs (photo gallery).

There are issues that should not be rushed, and in typical American fashion a sort of re-engineering/down scale of the process of study and service on the females, we now have a serious disturbance factor ... all because it is quicker ... Perhaps it should be realised a little more profoundly that the Boba or caretta caretta is perhaps somewhat more nervous or un-nerved than say the Green or Carey Turtles.

Patience is a virtue, it can also be a kindness, perhaps we should concentrate on a better tagging method to avoid that un-necessary pain. On top of which, so many females have torn scales from tags being ripped-off as perhaps in foraging, mating or even attacks from say small Barracuda which are easily attracted to the silver alloy plates flashing in sunlight.

Further evenings passed as one took turns on the short beach of Ervatao or the long beach of Ponto Cosme. I had not yet been to Calheta where one rips finger nails digging in the sand for “eggpots” and I had preferred to work the nights as opposed to the early mornings ... one can in moments of waiting, lay back into the sand and observe the amazing star filled heaven and more ... and the odd UFO of which you will no doubt be thoroughly sceptical, but 3 people saw it all at the same time ... not a lot seems to happen hereabouts!

We met up with another monster Boba and one intriguing creature named “Hortensia” as the most recent turtle to have the GPS monitoring unit glued to her back ... this was quite an exciting moment for the camp monitors and cache of scientist/students as at the moment only 8 exist with a recent report that another had been captured illegally by fishermen, end un-known but probably killed ... if only they knew the worth of the kit on her back!!!

The monster Boba had a serious disability in that she literally had a stump right rear, where a whole flipper ought to be ... and the left was mutilated also to a “short leg”. Thus her nest digging was not so profound nor so well covered ... it was this turtle amongst the “three” observed, that abandoned her task as we proceeded to rack-up some more pain on her front flippers.

I suppose if blundering in with all our ephemeral technology & gizmos helps to protect these pre-historic but utterly charming creatures, then blunder we must.

This has been an essentially turtle orientated programme but the island of Boa Vista has other little known secrets to which one may indulge oneself in this rare and rustic atmosphere. I recall the word “paradise” and what constitutes a paradise ... there are the lush vegetation paradises and those of atoll nature such as the Maldives ... Boa Vista is in contrast, with little obvious lushness but much volcanic sculpture amidst boulder and ball-rock strewn plains and undulating landscapes. Massive sand hills and dune deserts adorn areas of textures in brown / ochre / reds / greys and pale browns ... contrasts set sparingly but rich ... a small bird world of interesting & some rare species along with raggedy goats and “wild” donkeys.

The marine life I repeat, having taken time out to scuba dive this sojourn is beautiful and rich in corals ... the beaches blind you with distance and width ... and for the minimalist photographer the overall bareness and textures amidst the scantness of high profiles makes for a challenging framing of (not much appears to happen here ... but it does).

The beachscape here, and I refer to the monitored beaches, has changed also, in that a lot more poles have been placed along with the restriction enclosures for the emerging juveniles ... when I left in July, we had marked to 199, when I returned at the end of August, the score had reached 709, by midway we were at 846 and on my departure two days early to stay in Sal Rei it was well over the 900 mark and I repeat that this is only the marked nests.

In 2003 the estimate of “visits” (rastros-tracks) was well in excess of 6,000. It is difficult to say what the overall island visitation number is, but we must remember that this does not represent the population of Boba turtles, it represents the multiple visits of the females that have copulated several times and with different males ... it is of this element that a separate study of multi-paternity, philogenetic and comparison of bi-parentality is underway. Here the scientific world is as usual divided, in more than one slice of the equation cake.

Before I left the camp I had personally let loose into the sea some 400 baby turtles ... It is also in retrospect an emotional feeling ... it was then somewhat absurd, a grown man standing at the surf edge at “midnight” making sure that dozens of little turtles at a go, got away safely into the predatorial world awaiting them ... boy...! how they struggle in your hand and how they struggle to the sea.

What interests me and the likes of people who care about the importance of relationship humans have with the environment at large, is that we show it physically and express it now across the “www” and in establishing kindred groups on an ever re-cycling basis ... it is always difficult to keep the same people focused on the issue and newcomers are important ... thus to participate, learn, understand, re-educate and live in equilibrium with the original inhabitants of this world.

We are amongst other things a plague to this world, much like the locust, an ironic anachronism, but we destroy with ease with poisons and non-degradeables and build appalling edifices without consciousness. Your average politician is your average man in the street and will resent the provocativeness because amongst other things the ignorance of the “average” is increasing, the fear of facing truths is more driving than to leave the “club dogma” and support the changes ... all who live in ivory towers have only ivory towers ... and when the ivory has gone perhaps they will use alligator skins to impress each other with their ignorance and absurdity.

My personal moment to the second sojourn was the saving of 7 little lives from a nest that had been ironically re-opened by another turtle on her round of intentions in a less than suitable location ... it was not far from the camp at the end of the sand beach entering the rocks. I casually walked across towards the point and on closer examination saw little heads protruding and in a state of semi paralysis in the mid morning sun.

After some careful hand work, I retrieved the little turtles, one of which still had its little bag attached. The short story is that we re-buried them in a “cool box” of warm sand at the camp and watched 7 little tortugas “emerge” into the big world over the next several days ... kind of pleasing really.

Reflections...

In the two camp periods that I volunteered for, the first in June/July was the more satisfying and despite the rigours of the “night-shift” was relaxed in the company of Nuri, Cristi & Dani (Daniel). I tend to be “in for a penny, in for a pound” and gladly volunteered to do extra turns or cover for flagging volunteers 25 years my junior ... it was interesting to compare the younger group volunteers over the older group of my second visit. The first lost interest easily and slept it out a lot on the beach as a “couple of us” worked in delighted interest with the monitor.

Of course, giving such a lot of effort is bound to have a reaction although I made it through till the last evening when suddenly I collapsed (privately of course ... appearances my dears) just as the party got underway. Suffering boom-boom-boom till 4am did not help me ... on top of which it was rise at 7am pack up three weeks of sand ridden kit et-al and do the long slow journey to Sal Rei where we had a couple of hours to wander “town” before waiting a further 2 hours for delayed inter island flight.

Our outward bound was at midnight ... so we went to Sta Maria on Sal Island. I had changed into long jeans from shorts and my wallet dropped out (hindsight) and arrived Sta Maria loot-less. The taxi driver Toto was an excellent type and did a Carlos Sainz back to the airport which took my mind off the wallet and contents for a while ... to which end after traipsing around the airport getting no help from the police eventually a cleaning woman came forward with the wallet minus the dosh ... of course ... the cards were there ... curiously, I had previously asked the same woman who denied all knowledge (but did not self destruct in 5 seconds).

Ah well “shit happens” and on that you can rely ... it was not the best omen as I sat “pissed-off” in the airport awaiting the return of the group. So we flew back in time to loose a couple of hours of life somewhere twixt paradise and the Touri-Islands. One had to wait a few more hours for the inter-island flight to Fuerteventura and the patient recovery that was necessary for me to loose the “death warmed up” feeling.

Well, Fuerteventura was equally as warm and after doing the softly-softly for several days I ventured back to my mountain bike training loop on the following Saturday morning only to run into a fast arriving “calima” (hot winds and dust particles from the Sahara- we are only 90km away), This lasted a full 5 days with temps of 49ºC ... this put me on my back again, everything was “hot”. Despite my sheltered zone, the air-wind racing off the ground felt like the heat from a barbeque and not only heat but wind driven as though hell was about to land ... it was a rare calima, but a real hammer.

Thus in August I had to live a relatively easy life and only went out four times on the bike as opposed to the average of three times per week which gives me about 130km and some 3,000mts of climbs. I like to keep fit, besides after the struggle up-hill there is the downhill ... trust me, I am mad.

As the time closed for my next sojourn I knew that I was going away still on penalty time and wondered how far I would make it before showing signs of “tank empty” ... well it came close, that much I had to take the last two nights out and stay at the villa in Sal Rei. There I wobbled for a while and tried to stuff myself with pasta, tomatoes, pimentos, onions and multi-vitamins ... plus I slept like a log.

On this sojourn the two excursions were put back to back and I decided to take the second which returned me to the beautiful bay of Praia as Gattas where the amazing colonies of coral are just beneath the low tide mark. We saw two green turtles (photo gallery) and another member Paula saw a Carey turtle.

But the two excursions together, especially the first which takes in the desert areas and dune beaches was an 11 hour day ... after which it's back out on the night-shift!!! I had decided correctly not to abuse my body quite so much and continued on with my photo assignment.

I was not the only one to suffer if I was the last ... there were seven others who went down badly with diarrhoea and vomiting and several more suffering the heat and lack of good sleep. Three monitors also went to the mattress. It was a particularly hard sojourn and on top of it all, I had foot blisters and continuous pain in the arch of my left foot ... gladly I did not suffer the D&V that the others did.

Another member, Carlotta also suffered the problem of her right foot and had to wear a support every time she went out ... she also had 2 nights down with the problem being un-able to walk for her turns ... and foot injuries from sharp rocks and shells was quite bad this time around and my feet spent half the time plastered or bandaged.

The food came in daily and was good but simple. It arrived around 4pm which for me and some others was a bit late in the day. It left little time to relax and rest before going out at 8pm to do a 5-7 hour stint on the beaches. We tried to take turns in walking the long beach which was accessed from the short beach, thus some 5kms was covered overall, although it was sometimes nearer to 7kms with the backward & forwarding on the long beach.

The short beach of Ervatao was always turtle-busy and so more concentrated. It transpired that some of us preferred the night work to the day work of follow-up on the previous evening. In general it all worked out, but we were none-the-less thin on the ground especially with 2-3 off for sickness/tiredness. It was as much a lack of volunteers within the scientific group who had their objectives and who for the most part participated every night for the collections of blood and tissue samples.

We had to up-turn some poor turtles for Claudia to measure the tail ... there was never a dull moment, but perhaps a little too much restricted to camp as walkabouts in the heat of the day sapped the energy just too much ... one has to find however, an equilibrium for the body because too much laying around does not help, it creates torpor and the body goes into low gear.

Some of the more fortunate younger members who found less difficulty with the day heat took short walks to do bird studies or collect the marvellous array of shells and small lava rocks along the rugged northerly coast. Although some of these youngsters were the ones that suffered the diarrhoea problem worst.

And so on the Wednesday evening the safari vehicle took me back into Sal Rei as the opportunity arose to get me there and as I previously remarked, wobbled a bit on arrival but the following morning after a death-sleep arose quite noticeably better. I had also decided to miss the party till 5am because I needed to complete more photography for the file and this report ... I like a party but with all that follows I could not really face the tediousness of people simply pushing the limits and complaining about it next day as some did when we met up in Sal Rei (photo gallery).

We went however, to the “container bar” on the old pier and had a very good meal of fresh grilled fish and chips with (tinned) veg but fresh salad ... never look a gift horse ... whereas the previous evening I had a prepared a spaghetti alioli for myself and the “film crew” of Diego & Natalie. We there-after went down to a local bar to enjoy the Ponche (rum) with Honey or with Coconut, mix with Coke or Sprite and ice, one has a delicious semi Caribbean “sundowner” and delightful Cabo Verde music as in the DVD we saw of the glorious Cesarea Evora Live in Paris ... ah yes , not much appears to happen around here, but it does. And most satisfyingly, there was time to talk in a relaxed manner.

Diego and Natalie had spent some days at the camp shooting everything that either walked or was lying down ... later they removed to Sal Rei for material in the environs of. It was conducive to talk with Diego being very animated and interested also in my work and likewise I with his, we had conferred quite a lot over locations and potential material ... he had also seen the first pictorial copy of my first sojourn and took interest in the still material for his “moving material”.

The highlight of Sal Rei in my case was to go out diving with a “Brazilian- brother” Atila and his companion Rosy who run a small but dedicated dive centre ... there are excellent coral formations amongst the lava reefs. There is also an abundance of fauna common to the Caribbean Sea & Florida Keys. The two wrecks I dived were in shallow water 9-10 meters and the older of the two was coral encrusted and awash with shoals of various species including big Parrot fish, Jacks, many varieties of sea Bream, a local Angel fish, Damsel and a polyglot of Wrasse.

There were also some beautiful Gorgonia scattered amidst the wreckage ... a large vessel with plenty of space to penetrate and move around without sediment dispersal. The bows and stern are proud but midships is well flattened. The boilers are impressively intact and sit like two huge fuel tanks just beneath the surface. The propeller shaft is at one point just penetrable between two bulkheads.

The second wreck a more recent one, the Taliarte, has a lot to do with the project and lies in about 9 mts on her port side and shrouded in fish not dissimilar to Brown Chromis with Blue Chromis and hundreds of Sergeant Majors and more ... I did this on a snorkel dive so had limited time to explore, however, my next visit will concentrate on the story of this wreck and the older one which has lain upright for some 50 years.

The “TRAVEL” programme will be offering dives to these wrecks and other coral sites for fully qualified divers and a “diving experience” to those not qualified, but do not suffer from Epilepsy, Diabetes or Asthma . ( It will be essential to bring a recent doctors certificate stating that one is essentially fit to dive & does not suffer the aforementioned nor has any problems with sinuses or ears).

The return journey was a bit drawn out, the flight from Sal Rei was on-time (amazing) and we had time to kill at the international airport of Sal. Here we viewed a picture history on the lap top of Anna, one of the monitors, of her experiences previously in Boa Vista and other events concerning the rescue of sea birds, land birds at the centre for hospitalization of injured species, in Tafira on the island of Gran Canaria. This also included pictures of a Laúd Turtle which can grow to over 2 meters and weigh-in at over 800kgs ... a real heavyweight ... this one however was somewhat in the lightweight class at 230kgs with a flipper span, never-the-less of over 2 meters.

One can become intensely interested in “Tortugas” ... for those looking for, or needing something special in life, this is worth going for. Not a lot seems to happen here ... but it does.

Listing of personnel and other references

This story has been deliberately written in two parts... I did not wait till after the second visit ... the first part was written, first ... in order that the comparisons and different experiences could be separated as though in first and last impressions, or, written “live” and not so in retrospect of two sojourns.

I have made “reflections” on both sojourns the note taking was begun on–site and finalised during the long hours of the return journeys. Subsequently reviewed before loading the computer with resultant text.

For the most part I have reported accurately in the technical issues and given a threshold view of the island ... and the elements of my personal views are none-the-less sincere in this afore-mentioned “philosophical overview”.

There was more to have been written, but the timetable of things back at base of operations did not permit the luxury of time to slowly manifest a larger work.

The personnel at “Camp Ervatao” were on my first visit: Nuria (la Jefa), Dani & Cristi, monitors ... & to the second sojourn the amplified team included; Nuria, Cristi, Coro, Ana, Michael, Mireie & Begoñia.

Supporting biologists were Claudia Delgado (Univ Madeira) Study: Sexual Physiology ... Paula Sanz Rubio (Univ Barcelona) Study: Philogenetic/Multipaternity & Bi-parental Comparison ... Ana Belen Casal Lopez (Gran Canaria) Veterinarian. Study: Haematology (Illnesses in Turtles).

Further admirable members of the hard-working volunteer teams all of whom by first names:

First team: Yurena, Margerena, Chazi, Churena, Celine, Guillermo, Tommy, Dolores, Armando, Javier, Bea and Elena.

Second team: Carlota, Else, Alejandro, JoseLuis, Juan P, Nataly, Mari, Ilenya, Luisa, Esperanza and Diego.

At the villa in Sal Rei: Pedro and Mario.

At the Dive Center Sal Rei: Atila and Rosy.

Chef de Project: Sn Don Luis Felipe.

Photo Development and Exhibition prints: Paco and Juana, MAXFOTO, Puerto Del Rosario Fuerteventura.

Secretary of the Environment Agency of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura: Sn Don Lazaro Cabrera.

Director to the Secretary: Sn Don Dr. Tony Gallardo.

© 2003-2006