The U.S. Embassy in Cape Verde has initiated a plan to restore the dunes of Costa Fragata on Sal Island and Boa Vista using as an example the Masdunas plan in the Maspalomas reserve. Ponta da Fragata is a promontory on the east coast of Sal Island located at the southern end of the Serra Negra mountain, 6 kilometers northeast of the town of Santa Maria. To the south of the promontory lies the Costa da Fragata, a 4,7 kilometer long sandy beach that is a protected nature reserve, important as a nesting area for the loggerhead turtle.
The Cabildo de Gran Canaria has revitalised the Maspalomas Dunes Special Nature Reserve by adding 60.000 cubic metres of sand to the area, planting 583 balncones and removing 760 cubic metres of exotic invasive flora, among other actions, through its Masdunas project, which aims to restore and improve the state of conservation of the habitats present in the area and in which the Corporation has already invested nearly two million euros since 2018.
The wind direction makes Costa de Fragata the most ideal beach on the island for kitesurfing. During the summer, it hosts volunteers from the Biodiversity Project, who set up a camp to patrol the beaches to protect the endangered loggerhead turtles. The area is named after a frigate that sank somewhere nearby in the 1960s along with chocolate that was being shipped from the Congo region to Denmark in north-central Europe. The frigate was seen across most of the southern half of the island and sank dozens of meters below sea level. Over time, the abandoned frigate collapsed into the ocean and can no longer be observed. Masdunas has removed 760 cubic metres of invasive exotic flora, captured more than 250.000 Mozambican tilapia, controlled introduced predators such as feral cats, hedgehogs and rats, and increased the area of scientific monitoring plots from 15.951 to 28.738 square metres.
