Tiny Olive Ridley Turtles of Morro Peixe

A young hatchling at the incubation center

I arrived at the village of Morro Peixe after my hike up Pico de Sao Tome; the small fishing village was a 10 minutes ride on a moto-taxi from Guadalupe. It was late afternoon when I got in and was seemingly perfect for a night patrol on its beaches to see sea turtles. The 4km stretch of beach from Morro Peixe to Praia Micolo are reputedly used for nesting by atleast four different species of sea turtles including Green, Olive Ridley, Hawksbill, and Leatherback from the months of September to April and since it was March I reckoned that I had a good change to see some.

Land búzios

Fulu Fulu in creole sauce with
cooked bananas...yummy

Getting there was the easy part as there were three critical issues I had to consider;

a) To see the turtles, they have to be there…its not like I show up and they are waiting for me.
b) I was quite tired and more importantly walking in all that rain for several hours had resulted in blisters on my feet and made them quite sensitive. Every step was so painful it was as if my feet were crying out to not walk any further.
c) My backpack was a heap of wet damp cloth. All my clothes and documents were wet and even though I compartmentalize my belongings in plastic bags, the prolonged exposure to the rain had resulted in almost everything being wet. I had to dry them in the little time I had before I flew to the Island of Principe the next day.

With an Olive Ridley hatchling

Letting them go...

Perhaps the rain gods did get the last laugh but I had not time to waste though so as soon as I got in, I met up with Hipolito Lima, a very well know former fisherman turned self styled turtle savior. Hipolito was a strongly built man probably in his late 60’s with an extremely gentle demeanor. He welcomed me with great kindness and when I asked him if there was a place I could stay for a night he volunteered his tent that he normally uses for his night patrol.

I set about unraveling my wet clothes to dry in the evening sun while he pitched the tent on the porch of his turtle incubation center and shop. Before the sun set, there was just enough time to take a quick dip in the tranquil waters of the Atlantic ocean. The swim was quite revitalizing as it washed away all the dirt from the hike and the saltwater seemed to heal my sore legs…or so I thought.

Making its way to the ocean

This one needed a little help

Hipolito then accompanied me as we walked around the small village interacting with the friendly locals. He had also arranged for my dinner but it would be much later in the evening and hungry as I was, I decided to try some grilled land búzios (snails)…I would say not quite my thing as the meat seemed a little tough. Across the lady who was grilling the land búzios there was another one who was selling marinated sea búzios and they were actually very tasty. Ordering the búzios was like ordering shots in a bar…we had one, then two and then soon the 5th rounds of búzios.

Hoping that they make it back someday

The patrol in the night began at around 10pm and it was a good idea I had a couple hours of sleep as there was no way I would have been able to walk for few more hours that night otherwise. Luckily for me, that same night Hipolito was going to release about eighty hatchlings from the incubation center back to the sea.

We walked a couple hours keeping an eye out for mother turtles coming ashore to lay eggs or signs of a nest so we could carefully remove the eggs and take them back to the incubation center. It was mid-March and close to the end of the nesting season so unfortunately we did not see any adult turtles but we still had the hatchlings to release.

Drying my stuff

Carefully, we lay the bucket on the beach and flashed the torch light towards the ocean. The shining lights presumably acts as moonlight reflecting off the waves which indicates to the young hatchlings the direction to the ocean. One a couple occasions when we shifted the light focus towards our feet to make sure we don’t trample any hatchlings in the dark, I could see the hatchlings immediately turning away from the ocean in confusion.

Fishermen returning after a days work

I have been lucky to have seen the Green Turtle nesting and laying eggs in Comoros and to now release these tiny Olive Ridley hatchling back to the ocean was a very gratifying experience. Only 1% of sea turtle hatchlings ever last to adulthood and return back to the beaches they hatched on, and even though we only released 80 of them that night I truly hope one day atleast one of them returns back.

I had to drag my weary legs and tired mind back to my tent that night with my eyes almost half shut and I dozed off listening to the waves lapping against the beach.



Happy with his catch for the day



Most of the morning was spent planning to-do activities on the island of Principe and unwinding by watching the fishermen returning from they jaunt at sea. The fishermen leave around 4am in the morning and return by 10am and all of them practice line fishing. Almost all of them had caught a fish they call as “Fulu Fulu”, which I had for dinner the night before and it was rather tasty accompanied with cooked banana. I reckon the seas around Sao Tome and Principe have ample fish and as long as they continue using line fishing and other illegal trawlers from the high seas are keep away, they should be able to sustain it for their future generations.

I thanked Hipolito for his hospitality and made a generous donation to his organization which is also supported by MARAPA, a local conservation organization and soon it was time to head to Sao Tome city to catch a flight to the island of Principe.

Took a while to get her to smile

The little one seems scared of me