Check out http://sostartarugas.org/
a facebook group too
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6491778950
Just a few 5 to 10 years ago Cape Verde had miles of untouched beautiful beaches. You could walk for miles and just see ocean and sand, occasionally you'd see a small fishing village with pastel colored stone homes and fishermen's small canoes along the shoreline. Fishing has never been industrialized in Cape Verde and that is why to this day in some villages you can catch seafood without going very far from the shoreline. I remember just a few summers ago my 12 year old cousin caught a squid with his bare hands while taking a swim.
Cape Verde has one of the world's richest ocean bio-diversity, mainly because small scale canoe-fishing does not damage the ocean and it's habitat. Also Cape Verdean villages don't waste a lot of lights and resources that pollute the ocean nor scare away certain sea creatures that are sensitive to lights.
But times have changed, Today there is so much construction in Cape Verde, especially ocean front construction, which are lit at night; and the lights from these construction sites are scaring away turtles. Turtles lay their eggs at night in the darkness, but with all the construction lights and street lights near the beaches, the Turtles are becoming disoriented.
There is also a habit amongst some Cape Verdeans to consume turtles as a delicacy. In the end Cape Verde is loosing its precious sea turtles.
It's great to see there are organizations out there trying to conserve these turtles, but it's also important to realize that the problem with these turtles represents and reflects upon a larger problem; neglect. There are so many benefits to Cape Verde's economic growth, that sometimes the problems that seem so small go neglected. But not for long, because for every problem there is a solution or more, and I'm glad to see these solutions arise. People coming together to solve theses problems and make Cape Verde a greater nation.
The Future:
I'm very excited about Cape Verde's future; More and more our nation is evolving in great ways and above all we have shown a strong ability to solve problems successfully no matter what they are. This effort to save Cape Verde's sea turtles shows the benefit of this unique style of globalization that we in Cape Verde have adopted; a style that allows us to embrace the world, embrace new technologies and investments, and at the same time receive foreign help in solving our problems.
Again Cape Verde has proven to the world that working together is not always a bad thing, that people form different nations can come together and create something great through a tolerant and welcoming atmosphere - after all Cape Verdeans are a product of a rich mixture of europeans, africans and some asians that settled the islands centuries ago and built the strong and beautiful culture that we have today.
