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Plage Blanche

“Plage Blanche” (= the white beach) in southern Morocco has the most incredible beach topography I have ever seen. It is simply the Sahara undulating its way down to the tideline. The coastline was shrouded in mist when I visited, giving Plage Blanche an additional surrealistic appeal.

Pasteur and Bons in 1960 referred to extensive nesting by loggerheads and possibly greens on this beach (their information came from personal communications from officers of Indigenous Affairs). I was very keen to verify their information and to collect tissue samples to determine if some of the haplotypes seen in juvenile loggerheads in the eastern Atlantic could be traced to this region. However, getting to this beach through the harsh Saharan terrain was not simple. We were able to get to only two access points to this beach with great difficulty, and only after driving for several hours on a bumpy track, getting lost in the desert, and stopping to ask the occasional Tuareg herding his camels for directions.

I surveyed only a small section of Plage Blanche and found no evidence of nesting, and the fishermen I encountered said they had never seen nesting turtles – very disappointing! It had been nearly 40 years since Pasteurs and Bons reported nesting at Plage Blanche and a decline in nesting in a shorter period of time has been reported in other sea turtle populations. Nevertheless, I remain dissatisfied with the information I could collect about Plage Blanche…one of these days I hope to make a more organized trip to survey the entire stretch and to talk to the older fishermen in that region …

Posted by Manjula Tiwari on June 30, 2004 12:37 PM | | Save This Page |

Comments

I'm e-mailing you from Port Aransas, Texas, in the United States.

I was wondering if, during all your time exploring beaches, you ever have found a message in a bottle.
I know that seems like an odd question, but please hear me out.

I'm writing a book full of true stories about people
finding messages in bottles. I have found that sea turtle researchers and extremely avid beachcombers are among the most likely people to find
messages in bottles. I know a biologist named Martha McAlister,
for example, who has found more than 70 messages in bottles on Matagorda Island, Texas, USA, over a period of some years of regularly exploring the beach on that island. I plan
to include a number of her messages in bottles in my book.

Have you ever found any messages in bottles? If you have, can you tell me a bit about them? If not, do you know of other people I might check with, people who explore beaches frequently?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Dan Parker
P.O. Box 235
Port Aransas, Tx. 78373
USA

361-749-5738

Posted by: Dan Parker | July 2, 2004 06:26 PM

We also hope to make a more organized trip in “Plage Blanche” to survey the entire stretch and to talk to the older fishermen in that region for possible nesting !!!

Posted by: Wafae Benhardouze | December 27, 2004 09:52 AM