Marine Turtle Conservation Project Northern Cyprus

Along a dusty winding track in the wilds of Northern Cyprus stands a pair of green turtle gates beyond which lies an outback house called Alagadi Goat Shed. Recently I went to visit Matt & Austin on their Escape Committee adventure as they reached Cyprus. It was our discovery of the Goat Shed which led to me standing ankle deep in the Meditearean late one evening, under a full moon, releasing baby green turtles into the ocean.

The beaches of Northern Cyprus are home to two endangered species of Turtle; Loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta and Green turtle Chelonia mydas. These turtles come ashore from May through to August to lay their precious cargo of eggs on the same beaches that they themselves hatched on, some up to 30 years earlier.

However, the threats to nesting females and hatchlings are so great that in 1992 the University of Exeter founded the Marine Turtle Conservation Project to help conserve these endearing creatures in conjuction with the Society for Protection of Turtles in Northern Cyprus.

The project is run by volunteers who are mainly students from the University of Exeter lead by Kim Stokes who is currently completing her PhD on the response of marine vertebrates to climatic change.

I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Kim and accompany her team on a Green turtle nest excavation which provides important data on the success of nests and survival rates of hatchlings. The excavation the day before produced only one hatchling. On the day I joined them the nest produced eighty healthy Green turtle hatchlings which would be released later that evening. Coming face to face with a baby turtle was one of the most precious animal encounters I've ever had. They face such insurmountable obstacles on their journeys from the nest to the sea and beyond it's a wonder any of them make it at all. But their plucky little characters say it all, from the minute they surface from the nest their flippers are in full swing instinctively wanting to swim. Volunteers patrol the main nesting beaches both day and night recording important data such as carapace length and width along with the pattern and amount of scutes on the shell on both nesting females and hatchlings. Some of the nesting females are fitted with satellite tags and tracked.

Later that evening after a delightful dinner cooked by the volunteers I accompanied them back to the beach to release the hatchlings excavated at dusk. It was an unforgettable moment as a line was drawn on the sand to mark their starting point and the hatchlings were positioned for release, on the count of 3 the shoreline swarmed with baby turtle activity, their little bodies writhing on the sand desperate for their first taste of freedom, and in seconds they were gone, out into the deep blue ocean to fend for themselves. The next time they emerge will be to nest on the very same beach they were released on, provided they make it back.
x Good luck on your journeys little Green turtles x

All the best
Nicole
Nicole Fenton Zoology Blog