An adult Loggerhead sea turtle.

Credit: Wikimedia

~ Catherine de Lange

Two weeks ago, I found myself sitting on a Brazilian beach under the light of the full moon, with a tiny turtle wriggling between my fingers. I had come to the fishing village Praia do Forte, just north of the Brazilian city of Salvador, to meet scientists working on one of the world’s most successful turtle conservation projects called Projeto TAMAR.

This super-cute baby turtle was newly hatched, and measured no more than a few centimetres, but was already flapping its paddle-shaped legs around, eager to make it out to sea. As I set it down on the sand along with about 100 of its brothers and sisters that had all been born that day at the Projeto TAMAR hatchery, I watched in wonder as they scuttled off into the sea to begin their lives in earnest.

It was a spine-tingling experience, not least because I knew the perils they face. It turns out I’m not the only one who finds these tiny turtles irresistible: it’s not uncommon for local fisherman to find as many as four baby turtles in the belly of a single grouper fish, which lurk in the shallow waters just off the coast. In fact, the first kilometre of their journey is the most perilous for the babies, and just 1% of them will survive to become adults.

The threat of becoming an early morning snack to natural predators isn’t the only danger the sea turtles face. When TAMAR was first founded in the 1980s, their main priority was to tackle the huge problem of local fisherman who would hunt the adult turtles, killing the females and taking their eggs. The booty could be sold at high prices, ending up in the manufacture of tortoiseshell frames for glasses. "At the time, we knew that we would not get a positive response if we just came and told the hunters not to do it," says Neca Marcovaldi who originally founded the project along with her husband Guy.

Instead of trying to take direct action against the poachers, Guy and Neca offered them jobs, and they now form part of the team that patrols the beach in the early hours of the morning to spot newly hatched eggs and females in the process of laying. The fishermen’s wives are also involved, creating handmade merchandise for sale in the gift shops. Today, poachers no longer pose a threat, and the focus has moved to fisheries and trawlers which catch turtles as a byproduct.

As the economy in Brazil blossoms, a new threat is also emerging in the form of coastal development and a boom in tourism. When I joined the TAMAR team in the hope of seeing a female come out of the sea to lay her eggs, it became obvious what a challenge the team now face in dealing with new resorts and homes being built just metres from the beach. During our patrol, we came across sun loungers and oil cans which had been left out on the beach at night where the turtles build their nests.

But thanks to the TAMAR team, the resort developers have agreed to take certain measures to help with the turtle conservation. For a start, they limit the amount of light the guest rooms give out at night, and don’t have any lights around the pool area. This is important because the baby turtles use the moonlight reflected off the crests of waves to find their way into the sea. To demonstrate, one of the scientists out on patrol shines a torch in front of some of the babies who are making their way to the ocean. As soon as they see the light, they change their course, heading straight for the lamp. But disgruntled visitors to the resort have already complained that there is no lighting by the pool to facilitate a nighttime dip.

Plans are underway for more resorts along the same area of beach, yet by adopting a similar approach to that they took with the fishermen, Projeto TAMAR hopes to show developers that the turtles can be an asset, rather than a threat to business. It is this long-term, pragmatic approach that has made TAMAR such a success to date, turning what was the turtles’ biggest enemy – local poachers - into a vital friend, by persuading them the turtles were of more value to their livelihoods alive rather than dead. Here’s hoping the tourists and developers moving in on the area can also be convinced that sharing their space with nesting sea turtles is a privilege worth more than a well lit pool to swim in at night.