Giving baby turtles a helping hand

On a dark, lonely beach on the less fashionable southeast coast of Sal, a small group of tourists tread carefully over the slippery rocks. The only light is a red pinpoint from Shannon's torch.

"Remember, if you use your camera, the flash has to be switched off," she tells the excited, chattering group from Italy, Germany and the UK. This is to avoid dazzling the small creatures writhing in Shannon's bucket. These tiny loggerhead turtles, hatched just a few hours ago, are about to be released into the sea.

Shannon is a volunteer with SOS Tartarugas, or Turtles SOS. The group is dedicated to protecting the loggerheads that nest every year on the sandy beaches of Sal, one of the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of West Africa.

Shannon takes one of the tiny hatchlings out of the bucket and holds it carefully between one finger and thumb. Its flippers are flapping at high speed, raring to go. She sets it gently on the sand, a few meters from the water. It heads towards the sea, attracted by the moonlight on the surf. A wave comes in and carries the turtle off into its element, the wide Atlantic.

Hunted to the verge of extinction

Turtles swim huge distances in their lifetimes, and face danger from predators, fishing boats and pollution. The chances of a turtle hatchling living to maturity and returning to the beach at Sal to nest some 25 years later are only one in a thousand, says Jacquie Cozens. A wildlife documentary maker, she first came to the island with her diving instructor partner Neal Clayton in 2006.

"My speciality is working with marine animals, so I was interested in the nesting turtles here on Sal," says Cozens. But what she and Clayton saw as they sought out turtles on the beaches, made them realize that the film project might have to wait.

"We found hunters were dragging the turtles up the beach and killing them," Clayton remembers. "There were dead turtles all over the place. More than 120 in that first season."

The couple joined forces with several local partners, and in 2008 they launched the SOS Tartarugas project to try and protect the turtles from hunters.

"Cabo Verde is the third most important nesting site for loggerhead turtles in the world," says Cozens. "When we first arrived, we were told that loggerheads would go extinct here by 2015 because so many were being killed for meat."

The turtle beach patrol

This year the number of turtles nesting on Sal has actually increased, largely thanks to the work of SOS Tartarugas.

"To start with, I had a vision that we get a few volunteers and walk on the beach to deter hunters. We now have 25 Cape Verdean people working for us and a number of local volunteers. We patrol the beaches all night, every night, to prevent hunters from taking turtles."

This is not a case of subsistence hunting, Cozens explains. The illegally hunted meat of this endangered species is sold for three euros ($3.70) a kilo. Fish is much cheaper and is available all year round.

New threats emerging

But hunting is not the only threat to the turtles of Sal. The island is a popular tourist destination for Europeans seeking sun and surf, especially during the winter months at home. Giant hotel complexes are springing up on what were once idyllic lonely beaches. When a turtle finds her way back to her birthplace on Sal to nest and lay eggs, she finds a beach with lines of sunbeds and umbrellas and, worst of all, blinding lights.

"Hatchlings orientate themselves by these lights instead of the moon and starlight on the ocean surf," Clayton explains. This means the tiny turtles walk in the wrong direction and die.

The hotels which have developed on Sal's west coast are spoiling what used to be one of the top turtle nesting beaches. Clayton and Cozens soon realized their project would have to do more than patrol to deter hunters. So the volunteers started taking note of where nests had been laid in an unsustainable spot - too close to the water, the vegetation, tourist activity or light pollution.

"Our rangers will find the nest, dig it up and put it in a bucket," says Cozens. "They take all the measurements of the egg chamber, then take the nest back to the hatchery, recreate the chamber, and put the eggs back in."

The hatchery

In the shadow of one of the huge walled-in hotel complexes, an area behind the sand dunes is roped off. This is the hatchery where tourists, lured out from their "all-inclusive" enclaves, can watch turtles hatch, and learn more about protecting the endangered species. They can even "sponsor" a nest, providing funds to keep SOS turtles afloat. T-Shirts, mugs, caps - turtle merchandise goes down well with the visitors here. Donations account for 80 percent of the project's funding.

When Clayton announces there will be a small expedition to release some turtles into the sea tonight, there is a long queue to sign up. In the six years since he and Cozens started the project, the number of nests on the island has increased from 500 to more than 1,300 this season.

Loggerheads come back up to five times a season to lay eggs, says Clayton. "They can come back as long as they are not killed on the beach. We try to make sure of that. We have flipper-tagged some and seen them returning."

Last year 18,000 baby turtles were released from the hatchery, Cozens adds. Without human help, they would not have made it. It is impossible to say if any of these tiny turtles will make it back here to lay a nest of their own in 25 years' time. But thanks to the intervention of SOS Tartarugas, more of them will have a fighting chance.