In support of Botinho Project, run by the São João da Barra fire department through the 31st, the Port of Açu will promote an environmental education activity, together with the children and teens who are part of this year’s (2018) summer camp. Next Tuesday, as part of the Port of Açu’s social responsibility actions, the team in charge of the Marine Turtle Monitoring program will present the kids with information on the work that’s been developed by the group since 2008. After a lecture on the importance of environmental preservation, the Program’s technicians will close the day’s activities with a release of the Caretta caretta species’ hatchlings, which use the northern coast near Rio de Janeiro to spawn.
For the Port of Açu’s Social Responsibility manager, Caio Cunha, investing in environmental education for children and teens is the first step in the dissemination of a culture of preservation. “It is our mission to share information with the kids, who are the principle multipliers of good environmental practices. In this summer period, those who visit the region’s beaches will most certainly notice the nests and the birth of the hatchlings. By knowing about the Program and the animal’s dynamics, they will know how to behave and will pass this knowledge on,” he said.
DSC_0037-1.jpgIn the Marine Turtle Monitoring Program, monitors cover 62 km (38 miles) of shoreline, registering all events related to the turtles. Monitoring efforts range from Pontal de Atafona, in São João da Barra, to Barra do Furado, in Campos dos Goytacazes. During the mating season, which goes from September until March, the team is also tasked with locating nests, identifying them and keeping track of them until hatchlings are born.
This is just some of the information that will be provided by the Port during the day of activities together with Botinho Project, which has nearly one hundred people signed up in the municipality of São João da Barra. The daily meeting place is the Firemen’s Detachment on Avenida Atlantica, next to the Atafona beach center.
Botinho 1.jpgThe Botinho Project has been going on since 1963, and was designed to stimulate a culture of maritime accident prevention and environmental preservation through organized educational activities.