The Cofete Beach Welcomes Eight Nests of Loggerhead Turtles, with around 500 new eggs.

The Project to reintroduce the Loggerhead Turtle in Fuerteventura, has tripled last years experiment and this time there are again nests of turtle eggs buried in as near natural conditions as possible.

The beaches of Cofete, in the south of Fuerteventura, has received the second shipment of the species (Caretta caretta) from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands, after the successful results of last year. Eggs were collected from 12 nests in Cape Verde where it was considered that due to the unfortunate positioning of the nests were at risk from predators and prevailing conditions and, therefore, had little chance of the eggs hatching naturally and the baby turtles surviving to get to the sea.

Eight of these nests, with around 500 eggs, were transferred only yesterday by helicopter from Gran Canaria to the "Turtle Camp" of Fuerteventura, where they were buried emulating the natural procedure of turtles: to half meter of depth and in a hole dug in with the widest distribution of eggs at the base of the hole.

Loggerhead Turtle nest Natalia Évora, Environment advisor of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, who had arranged the transportation last Sunday from Boa Vista beach in Capo Verde was herself present at the burial of the eggs. Mario Cabrera, president of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, and Domingo Berriel, Counsellor of Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio of the Government of the Canaries were also present, and were accompanied by other dignatories.

The remaining nests were transferred to the center in Taliarte of the institute of Marine Sciences, in Gran Canaria, and the Biological Station of Doñana, in Andalusia, to study process of gestation in incubators as a parallel study.

Ana Liria, coordinator of the ICCM project in Fuerteventura remembered that, "like the experience of the last year, the nests that were chosen to be taken to the Canary Islands were selected because survival of the eggs in their natural habitat was uncertain. Frequently a turtle makes its nest in an area with too much vegetation or too close or far from the sea, or in places where the weather conditions provide the wrong temperature and humidity that normally lead to the total loss of the eggs in the nest, so what we have done it is to repeat the procedure in a safer location on another archipelago thousands of kilometres away".

New features

The main difference in regard to last years experiment is that two of the eight nests taken to Fuerteventura were buried in different points of the Beach at Cofete, in and just outside the boundaries of Camp Turtle. The six nests in the camp will have their conditions maintained optimally whilst the eggs in the other two nests will be left to develop in a natural environment.

The percentage of appearance of baby turtles in the previous experiment was 85%, which is exceptional as in nature one would expect a 50% survival rate.

The Town hall of Fuerteventura has arranged a camp that has remarkable improvements over last year for example a caravan has been provided so that technicians and volunteers can sleep better and a prefabricated building has been constructed for stores and equipment as the eggs will be monitored 24 hours a day for the next few months until the appearance of the new baby turtles.

"This is a project that combines its scientific importance, with accreditation of the quality of our beaches and waters, which have been selected for their peaceful location and water quality. It is a long project and expensive, but in reality this work can be completed within a decade", explained the president of the Cabildo Mario Cabrera.

Once the eggs have hatched the turtles will be transferred to a breeding ground located by the port in Morro Jable, where they will grow in individual containers for a year until their release.

The breeding ground of Morro Jable currently has many turtles each one year old, having been born last winter in Cofete and which will be returned to the sea this month.

This scientific project, which has the collaboration of ULPGC the Town hall of Fuerteventura, the Government of the Canary Islands, the City council of Pájara and Environment ministry, began 5 years ago, with formation in Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) of a group of scientists and volunteers who studied birth of turtles “in situ”, and those are the same people to carry out this project now in Fuerteventura.

From then, and under the supervision of the professor of the ULPGC Luis Felipe Sworn Lopez, possible beaches were studied to allow the experiment of reintroduction of turtles, selecting Cofete from all the beaches of the Canary Islands and Spain for the quality of its waters and sand, as well as by not having many people in the vicinity to who could alter the ecosystem.

The process of bringing the eggs here must be done each year for 10 years, since the turtles will begin to return to lay their eggs at the place of their birth from this age. Only then will we know if this experiment has been successful.

The Environment minister of the Cabildo, Lazaro Cabrera, and Luis Felipe Sworn Lopez, encouraged this project years ago to to understand how a turtle nested around hundred years ago in beaches of Fuerteventura. Then it was begun to work in the project of reintroducción of a species, the Caretta caretta.It is a species considered "in danger" and "of special interést" to the scientific community.

The first Loggerhead Turtles in Fuerteventura recently were born in the middle of the month of November of 2006 in a successful appearance in which the three nests relocated in Cofete, which had been brought by helicopter from Cape Verde had a survival rate of 85%. Now, nine months later, of the 138 turtles that were in the "Day-care center" only six baby turtles have died in which means a survival rate of 95%.

Loggerhead Turtle