Ramiros - At least five million turtles have been thrown into the sea over the last seven years on the fishermen's beach, in Luanda’s commune of Barra do Cuanza, from an egg incubator of the Kitabanga project.
Kitabanga project was created with the initiative of professor Ana Lúcia, from the Faculty of Sciences of the Agostinho Neto University, in the 1980s.
The goal is to keep the species with the same name in various regions of the Angolan coastline.
Gregório Bento, who is in charge of the incubators, told ANGOP that the 20-metre long and four metre-wide artisanal structure of turtle eggs, installed in the sand of the beach, was mainly created for the spawning of this reptile.
At the time, he said, there are seven nests with 30 to 35 eggs each, which should spawn in a period of 45 to 50 days, most of them of the olive species.
As for the giant tortoise, known in the region as Kitabanga, named after the project, he considered “the situation very worrying because the species is on the verge of extinction due to indiscriminate capture and slaughter.
However, thanks to the awareness work carried out by the Kitabanga project, he explained that many of the communities stopped eating these turtles and gained a new mindset about the need to preserve marine species.
The fishermen's beach, home to more than 300 residents, is located near the mouth of the Kwanza River.
