Teachers and university students in Antalya, contrary to the heat, voluntarily comb the kilometers of the coast of the Belek and Kyzylot regions to identify and protect the nests of the headstock turtle Loggerhead.
Golovynaya sea turtles or Karetta – the type of sea turtles, the only representative of the Loggerhead family or the thugs of sea turtles, are at risk of disappearance.
annually on June 16 around the world, the “Day of the Sea Turtle” is celebrated.
According to scientists, at the moment there are seven types of sea turtles, of which six are under threat of disappearance.
Many volunteers voluntarily monitor the life of sea turtles during the period of excretion of offspring in order to help preserve and increase their populations. Among them are academics and students.
So, a group of teachers and students of the University of Hajettepe is involved in the implementation of the project called “Monitoring and preservation of sea turtles”.
The university teacher and the head of the Association of Ecological Research (EKAD) Ali Fuat Dzhanbolat is led by the group. From the beginning of May, work is carried out on the beaches of Belek and Kyzylota.
Volunteers come to the coast early in the morning and before lunch comb the kilometers of the coastal line, identifying and fixing the nests of turtles using cardboard signs.
The group spends all summer in a camp created on the territory of the Ulolan public beach under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.
Here they witness how sea turtles are selected to the shore, nesting, deduced offspring, which later returns to the sea with adults.
Females crawl out onto land, dig in its hind legs a jug -shaped fossa in the sand or other soil and lay eggs into it. Then the hole is poured and tamped on top with the blows of the plastron.
The EKAD project manager in the Kyzylot Fatikh Polat area told Anadol that the volunteers are combed with a coastal line with a length of up to 16 km, one by one identifying and fixing the nests of turtles.
According to him, last year, volunteers recorded on the coast of 1800 nests, of which almost 65 thousand sea turtles were hatched. “This year it was a little cool, so the sea turtles began to nest with a delay on average for 20 days. But in the last days it got warmer, we observe a serious increase in the number of nests,” he said.
Polat says that university students spending the night in the camp get up at 04.30 in the morning. “Not only we identify the nests, but we are engaged in the enlightenment of hotel and tourists, including foreign ones. Tourists even sometimes find the nests of turtles in the footsteps and inform us. The family from Finland found the nests of turtles and stuck cardboard signs with the image of the turtle in the sand. We are very The attitude of people is pleasing, ”he added.