Turtle Watching

Watching turtles on the beach &
swimming with turtles

On a holiday in Cape Verde you can join a turtle excursion and see these remarkable animals at close quarters on the beach.

The islands are increasingly known for the many turtles found here. Every year hundreds of them come ashore to lay their eggs.

Cape Verde has the third largest nesting population of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in the world – so the chances of seeing these animals in the wild are good.

Time your holiday right and you can watch turtles laying their eggs on the beach, or the hatchlings emerging from those eggs.

How can you watch turtles in Cape Verde?

There is beach watching, where you wait on the sand under a starry sky until the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. It is a very special experience.

Or you watch the hatchlings emerge from their eggs, usually during the day, and crawl across the sand into the sea. The eggs, or the hatchlings, are often collected to protect them from various dangers and then released on the sand during the day, where they head straight for the water to begin the long adventure of a life at sea.

You can also meet turtles out in the sea, while swimming, diving or snorkelling.

Which islands can you watch turtles on?

Turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on every island in Cape Verde. The one essential condition is a sandy beach, because the eggs can only be buried in sand.

Most turtles are found coming ashore on Sal and Boa Vista, which is why the choice of tours is largest there. Turtles also nest on the small island of Maio and on Santiago. These islands all lie further east and have a great many sandy beaches. But turtles nest on Santo Antão, São Nicolau, Fogo and Brava too, wherever there are sandy beaches.

Around the coasts of all the islands you will also come across turtles in the sea while snorkelling or diving.

When can you watch the turtles nesting?

The turtles nest in the sand between July and October. During those months they lay their eggs on sandy beaches and in the dunes.

The females come up onto the beach and do this three to five times, with a break of ten to fifteen days in between. At each nesting the female lays up to 100 eggs at once. After roughly 60 days the eggs hatch and the young turtles crawl out towards the open sea – ready for a great adventure.

Not every turtle that comes ashore actually builds a nest. It may be that she cannot find a suitable spot on the beach. Sometimes they are put off by a noise, by artificial light, or because the sand does not feel right. In summer it is all but guaranteed that you will see a turtle, because they definitely come up onto the beach at night.

Turtles live to be up to a hundred years old. After hatching they spend an average of about twenty years at sea before they breed. Then they return to the exact place where they were born.

When can you watch the turtles hatching?

August and September above all, though sometimes into late October, offer the best chance of seeing the hatchlings begin their new life. In those months you can watch the small turtles break out of their eggs and crawl across the beach to the sea. Even where hundreds of eggs lie on the beach, not every egg will hatch. And not every hatchling survives the journey from the sand to the water.

Turtle projects on Sal and Boa Vista

Cape Verdeans take the protection of turtles very seriously, so it is good to see how many conservation initiatives there are on the islands. The loggerhead is recognised worldwide as a threatened species. In recent years the nesting population in Cape Verde has fortunately been doing well – largely thanks to the many projects that have been set up.

On both Boa Vista and Sal you can see turtles on a night excursion. Both islands have various turtle protection projects. A great deal of care and attention also goes into looking after and protecting the beaches where the turtles usually lay their eggs.

Visitors can head out in the evening with a guide while information about the turtles is collected and the animals are tagged. The turtles can then be watched at close range: coming up onto the beach, the eggs hatching, and the hatchlings finding their way to the sea. It is also possible to adopt a baby turtle or make a donation towards turtle protection. Most of the money earned from the excursions goes back into turtle conservation.

What happens on a turtle excursion?

On most excursions you are picked up by pickup truck at your resort or at a central point in town. After a drive along an off-road track the group arrives at the turtle researchers’ camp. There you get a short briefing about the turtles, the nesting process and so on.

From there you continue on foot to the nesting sites. If turtles are spotted, you can look at them from close by once the turtle has finished building her nest. While laying her eggs the turtle enters a temporary resting state, which allows the scientists to measure her and record further details without disturbing her.

If a turtle excursion takes place in August or September, there is a chance of seeing the hatchlings emerge from their eggs. You can then also look at the nests with all the eggs, and perhaps point a baby turtle in the right direction for the sea.

Which turtles live in Cape Verde?

Of the seven sea turtle species in the world, five have been recorded in Cape Verde:

→ Loggerhead turtle – (Tartaruga Cabeçuda)
→ Green turtle – (Tartaruga verde)
→ Hawksbill turtle – (Tartaruga de pente)
→ Leatherback turtle – (Tartaruga de couro)
→ Olive ridley turtle – (Tartaruga oliva)

The two remaining species do not occur here: the Kemp’s ridley is confined to the Gulf of Mexico, and the flatback lives only in Australian waters.

The loggerhead is by far the most frequent nester in Cape Verde and the only one that nests here regularly; green, olive ridley and hawksbill turtles nest only occasionally. Adult loggerheads weigh between 75 and 130 kg. The archipelago is one of the most important nesting grounds in the world and the only significant breeding area for the species in the eastern Atlantic – remarkable, given how widely the loggerhead is distributed globally.

Why are the turtles in Cape Verde under threat?

Turtles face a range of threats. Alongside people, nature brings its own risks. Female turtles have to lay their eggs at a safe distance from the sea so that the surf does not wash the clutch away and destroy the nest. That, however, forces the newly hatched turtles to cover a longer distance to the water, which increases the chance of their being taken by birds. The journey is dangerous and costs the young a great deal of energy. Although the eggs in the nest are covered by sand, they are still dug up and eaten by various animals – stray dogs, lizards and crabs, for example.

The dangers continue after the turtles reach the sea. The waves and currents in the Atlantic are very strong. People are a threat here too: turtles sometimes end up in fishing nets or become entangled in plastic. Protection is also needed because they are unfortunately still hunted for food, though thankfully less and less often. Shells and eggs are sometimes taken as well. In 2017 the Cape Verdean government made hunting turtles illegal.

If you are going for a long beach walk or have hired a quad bike to cross the dunes of Boa Vista, take care not to enter protected areas. These are usually signposted. Riding a quad there is not permitted, and you may only walk on the marked paths.