Saving Giant Loggerhead Turtles In Cape Verde, The ‘African Caribbean’

The world’s third-largest nesting ground for Loggerhead turtles can be found on the island beaches of the small African nation of Cape Verde, known locally as Cabo Verde.

The average Loggerhead Turtle is big—about twice the weight of the average American—but its populations are not: the species currently listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Silvana Monteiro Roque, a biologist for local NGO Terrimar and a project leader for the New England Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Action Fund (MCAF), is based on Santo Antão island in Cape Verde and explains that the Loggerhead population there has a high genetic diversity.

“On the beaches, we work only with Loggerhead, which is the species that nests on Cape Verde, but in our seas, five species of turtles can be found,” she says, adding that Terrimar does a range of research on nesting sea turtles on the island.

“We tag turtles, we take measurements of the turtles, we collect skin samples of the turtles, for genetic studies done in England, and we follow the nests until the hatchlings come to the sea,” Roque says.

She says that although the local community has traditionally eaten sea turtle meat, catching turtles has been illegal in Cape Verde since 2005 and the consumption of their meat has been outlawed since 2018.

“Today, the level of awareness is much more than 20 years ago, when the efforts of turtle conservation started on Cabo Verde, but still many people that to catch sea turtles, because of economic motivation or sometimes only for tradition,” Roque says, “Working closely with local communities is crucial because only through their involvement in all the steps of the process, we achieve lasting results.”

Return To Cape Verde

Roque was born in Brazil, the daughter immigrants from Cape Verde and would return to the islands to help conserve their wildlife.

“My passion for animals since I was a child led me to study biology,” she says, “I always had dogs and bunnies at home, but never birds or fishes, because I don’t like to have animals in a prison, I think that all the animals deserve to leave free.”

Roque came to Cape Verde in 2006 to work at a nature reserve on São Nicolau Island, via the Ministry of Environment and Fisheries of Cape Verde.

“During 15 years I worked in the Ministry, in the creation and implementation of the national network of Protected Areas, and development of their management plans”, she says, “I think that through good management of a protected area, you can ensure the conservation of endangered species and organize human activities so that they coexist in order to promote the sustainable development of the communities that depend on the protected areas for their livelihood.”

Turtles in Ghana

Further down the west coast of Africa, helping to change community attitudes is also on the agenda for Eric Quayson, a conservationist based in Ghana.

Sea turtles are frequently caught by local fisherman in Ghana and it’s the job of the young Ghanaian conservationist to work with those fisherman to make sure that as many turtles as possible make their way back to sea, after being tagged.

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Quayson says that for generations fisherman in Axim also caught turtles, including the vulnerable Leatherback Turtle, to eat them or sell them, but that is slowly changing.

“I think that is the very important to involve and respect the fishermen and the part they can help in protecting turtles,” Quayson says.

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