Bubbles in the Bathtub

Continuing my experiences from Cabo Verde this summer...

Unfortunately I have let the story sit for too long and some of the details are already starting to escape my memory. My last post was about my arrival on Boa Vista. One thing that I forgot to mention in my last post; although my luggage did finally arrive in Boa Vista there were a couple of items missing. My bag was loaded with clothes, electronic accessories, personal items, and the only thing missing was a pair of field pants I had just bought (the kind with the zip-off legs) and a bathing suit (so I ended up having to swim in my shorts or birthday suit :). I also lost one of those key ring/luggage tag coins from the Orlando symposium attached to my bag (very handy for identifying my bag in a crowd) that must have broken off and another that my daughter made.

Anyways, on with the story...

The image below shows the south east coast of Boa Vista. The red text indicates three of the main nests patrolled during the turtle nesting season by the turtle project run by Natura 2000. Of interest is the sandy area north and a bit east of Pai Simiao. Part of this is a massive relic sand dune, it must be at least 40 feet high. But it doesn't stop the turtles as we could see lots of tracks going up and down both sides of the dune.

The turtle camp is on Ervatao shown below. The two dark squares are the large camp tents (each is probably about 10x10 meters, maybe a little bigger). The tent closer to the water has the kitchen, supplies and eating area (a photo is at the bottom of the page). The other is the sleeping area for the student volunteers and project coordinators. While I was there there were probably about a dozen students, a half dozen coordinators and a handful of people working on their own projects, from Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and Spain.

Zoom in a bit farther and you can see the "senior scientists house". A cinderblock structure with a bunk bed.

What's really amazing is the high-resolution images of Boa Vista that are available in Google Maps. The images really highlight the moonscape nature of Boa Vista. It is truly a desert island with a spider network of dirt roads.

You can even see the small shade on the beach (it's not really a hut, just some palm fronds on four poles). A nice place to take a nap during the heat of the day after a night of walking the beach. It's really too hot to sleep in the big tent or the house in the middle of the day.

No electricity, no running water, but all and all a very nice set-up. It seems like it should be a logistical nightmare, but fresh water and food is trucked in everyday and they do a great job making sure all basic needs are taken care of.

It's a great research site, with easy access to lots of loggerhead sea turtles.

Explore the landscape on your own!

Kitchen tent

Posted by Michael Coyne at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is something that I meant to post back in July when it first happened, but it somehow got away from me. I originally submitted it to the Animal Crazy blog at the Orlando Sentinel.

A little background first...

I wrote this in early July while we were on Bald Head Island, North Carolina attaching satellite tags to sea turtles nesting there. You can follow the progress of these animals and find out more about the project on the tracking web site. To set the stage or the following missive, we had been on call each night while interns at the Bald Head Island Conservancy patrolled the beach looking for nesting sea turtles. They would notify us when they found one and we would come out and tag it. Turtle nesting season in North Carolina extends from approximately late May through August, with scattered nesting before and after, and peaking in July. This is a time when adult female sea turtles are obviously coming very close to shore.

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I was disturbed to check out the beach early this morning and find a fisherman picking up a gillnet about 25 feet off the beach. He must have set it overnight, I think they are targeting flounder, and was retrieving it this morning. Gillnets are long panels of netting that hang in the water and are pretty much indiscriminate in what they catch. Some people call them "curtains of death" because they catch and kill every large fish (and turtle) that swims in to them, not just the target species.

What's most disturbing is that this is perfectly legal in North Carolina. Most states (including Florida) have outlawed gillnets because they are so destructive. This is particularly frustrating because all of the time and effort that goes in to educating people about sea turtles and working towards their protection. It is just astounding to me that this sort of thing is allowed at all, let alone allowed right off a nesting beach during the peak of nesting season. I hate to think that one of our turtles might end up dead because of one of these nets. Don't get me wrong, I do not have anything against fishermen, but it would be nice to see us evolve towards less destructive fishing practices.

I've attached a photo of the boat picking up the net below.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)