The huge Caretta-Caretta sea turtles are already a legend of the Turkish Mediterranean. Sculptures of giant turtles standing in an embrace greet guests at the entrance to Belek. During boat trips, guides certainly promise tourists that they will see turtles alive, and some beaches close after seven in the evening because of these legendary reptiles. But the most important period is autumn, when the tiny Carettes have to overcome the most dangerous path in their lives.
It's half past six in the morning, but very warm. The sea is gentle, the air is warm, although it is already autumn. We came to Cirali knowing that Caretta Caretta turtles hatch here, and now is the season. You just need to run to the beach in the morning and carefully look at the people walking past. But the sea quickly distracted us. And here, literally 25 meters from us, there is an obvious “it”, and we are in water up to our chests. In general, they took us by surprise, but we took the cameras and ran. And there some guys already write down in a special notebook how many pieces they got out of which hole and at what time.
A variety of people lined up in two ranks and cheered with the welcoming cries of the kids, of which there were four. The guys shout at the onlookers so that they don’t inadvertently disturb them. They chased me away when I was standing half a meter to the side of the turtle path - you never know, maybe the kid wants to turn away?
There were four supervisors themselves. And what? Responsible work! One takes notes, the other - with an important plaque on his chest, seems to be in charge. He controls all the supervisors' movements in relation to the turtles. Another one lifts and lowers and, if necessary, carries away into the general pile no longer needed wire frames, which are installed above the masonry while the baby is still in the sand. And he also carries a bucket into which they put completely hopeless, weak turtles. And the fourth, apparently, is for the company.
The cubs, hatched on the appointed day, must sit in the sand for another 26 hours, which is probably why the supervisors feel the laying site so carefully. The palm goes vertically into the sand in several places in turn. If “something is suspicious,” they use their palms, horizontal movements, layers, to shovel the sand to the sides. Probably for fear of hurting the kids, who had already decided to get out on their own. If they don’t find anything, they bury everything again, make the appropriate notes in their notebook and place a wire frame over the masonry - until next time.
While the turtles are crawling towards the water (and it’s funny, the closer to the water, the faster they run, they even jump, as if they feel it), the supervisors are busy with a very important matter. They carefully dig out the masonry - their former house, - everyone checks to see if there is anything left there, they count the peels, put them back and bury the masonry. And they don’t go anywhere until the turtles swim away.
And even if the turtle, which itself is still the size of 3/4 of a cigarette pack, turns over after falling from a pebble on the beach, there is no need to help it. A specially trained man helps her in some strange, but more effective way. He doesn’t turn her over, but puts his finger on her, helping her to tense her weak muscles and turn her over on her own.
As soon as the baby finally and confidently floats away, the supervisors collect their things and go to the next clutch. The whole crowd is behind them.
Irina IVANOVA
On a note:
Three of the seven living species are regularly observed in the Mediterranean Sea sea turtles: Caretta-Caretta, green (Chelonia Mydas) and leathery (Dermochelys Coriacea). The most common species is the Caretta Caretta, but green turtles are found only in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the water temperature is higher. Their main breeding grounds are on the beaches of the South-East coast of Turkey - Kazanlı, Akyatan and Samandağ.
Caretta-Caretta turtles are included in the list of endangered species of our planet by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species wild fauna and flora. The point is that they for a long time were considered a delicacy not only in Far East, but also in some European countries(for example, France and Italy). These marine reptiles feed mainly on plant foods. They live in colonies.
The Caretta Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles come out onto the sandy shore and use their hind legs to dig several holes. Then, having chosen, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but will choose only one for the entire clutch.
This tedious procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). From July to September, small turtles begin to appear. They say that males hatch at a temperature of 28.5 °C, but females require more heat - 32 °C.
The cubs, hatched on the appointed day, climb out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when small turtles are hatching from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the hatchlings and they will go astray. You need to get to the water before dawn. Those who are late die from the hot sun or become food for birds. Instinct leads adults back to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there in order to give life to a new generation.
There are 17 beaches in Turkey where sea turtles lay their eggs, among them the most important are Patara, the Göksu Delta, Belek - all of them have the status of protected areas.
Interesting Facts:
Caretta-Caretta turtles already live on Earth 95 million years
Adult turtles reach the size 115-150 cm
Weight - approx. 70-90 kg
Average lifespan - no more 70 years old
One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes for laying eggs
Betuyab on protecting turtles
According to Bülent Büyükiit, general manager of Betuyab, due to the rapid development of tourism in the region, the protection of the endangered species of Caretta Caretta turtles is now one of the priority activities of the Belek Investors Union (Betuyab). Every year, from May to August, vigorous work is carried out on the coasts of the region: installation of barriers, monitoring of turtles. For this, the Union invites specialists from all over the world, as well as volunteers - students from Turkey.
The protection of the Caretta-Caretta turtles in Belek is complicated by the fact that all 55 hotels are located on the coast. It's the extra light and sound that scares off the turtles, and they simply don't come to the beach. However, every year about 70 turtles hatch on the coasts of Belek. To continue their lineage, turtles choose such hotels in Belek as: Paloma Grida Village, MegaSaray, Xanadu, Kaya, Maritim Pine beach, Rixos, Club Voyage Belek Select, Spice, Arcadia, Magic World, Sun Zeynep, Attalia Village.
Photos for the article
And if you want to compare the Nile turtles that live in the Dalyan delta with Caretta-Caretta, then you)
One of the attractions of Dalyan is the Caretta-Caretta sea turtles, which have chosen Iztuzu beach to lay eggs.
Some information about Caretta-Caretta, gleaned from posters of the sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation center:
The Caretta Caretta is a sea turtle that lives in the Mediterranean Sea. The turtle lives in the sea and comes to land only to lay eggs. It can swim underwater at a depth of up to 200 meters. Can remain under water continuously for 15-25 minutes.
Turtles are carnivores. They have no teeth, but the jaw is powerful and the palate is very sharp. They feed on fish, crabs, crayfish and all other small creatures.
At 25-30 years of age they reach sexual maturity. Out of 100 turtles, only 3-5 lucky ones survive to puberty. They have too many enemies, one of which is human. Turtles die getting entangled in fishing nets or plastic bags thrown into the sea...
The female lays eggs once every 2-3 years from May to July. Lays eggs in holes/nests dug in the sand at a depth of 50-60 cm. As a rule, there is more than one nest; the female makes from 3 to 5 nests. Laying in different nests takes place at intervals of about 15 days. There are an average of 70 eggs in one nest. After 45-65 days, the young begin to hatch. At high temperature(+32) females hatch, at low (+26) - males. At the time established by nature, the cubs, having hatched, climb out of the nest and, obeying intuition, head to the sea.
In Turkey, one of the main places for laying Caretta-Caretta eggs is the beaches of Iztuzu, Patara, and Belek. These places have the status of protected areas. Interestingly, sea turtles, no matter where they are, always return to the beach where they hatched. And it is on this beach that eggs are laid. To continue their offspring, they, obeying instinct, travel thousands of kilometers to return to the beach where they themselves were once born...
On Iztuzu beach, there are posters at almost every step showing the nesting sites and urging tourists not to harm the turtles, which are on the list of endangered animals.
The sign indicates that the egg-laying site is located underneath it. In the area from the sun loungers to the white line (on the right in the photo), tourists are asked not to set up beds, not to put up umbrellas and not to dig holes. This territory belongs to turtles...
As far as I understand, it is practically impossible to see Caretta-Caretta outside the tour (Those who want to see turtles will have to go on a special tour. We didn’t go, but as part of another tour we came across a very responsive captain, who responded to our complaints about the fact that we were coming to Dalyan, but never managed to see Caretta-Caretta, changed the route and took us to the place of “hunting” for turtles.
Local residents, feeding the turtles, developed conditioned reflexes and now they are successfully using it to entertain tourists. Turtles are lured with blue crabs tied to a rope and thus shown to tourists. Crabs are caught here in the delta.
Here it is, the blue crab
This is for us) Crab baked in foil. Not bad. But Kamchatka crabs are a long way off...
And here comes the crab lover (she’s the one in the first photo)
The turtle moved quite briskly, apparently young and full of strength. Capturing it turned out to be very problematic.
And here it turned out so scary. Causes an association with a bird of prey. The turtle's head is large, hence one of its other names - loggerhead sea turtle.
We also met Caretta-Caretta at the center for the rescue and rehabilitation of sea turtles. But that is another story...
A species of sea turtle regularly observed: Caretta-Caretta, Caretta-Caretta turtles are on the list of endangered animals. The fact is that for a long time they were considered a delicacy not only in the Far East, but also in some European countries (for example, France and Italy).
These marine reptiles have lived on Earth for 95 million years. Adult turtles reach sizes of 115-150 cm, while their weight is about 70-90 kg.....
The Caretta Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles go out onto the sand and, using their hind legs, dig several holes, then, choosing, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but it will lay all its eggs in only one of them. The process of laying eggs lasts for hours and experts say that the female turtle does not experience positive emotions at this moment.
This tedious procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). And from July to September small turtles begin to appear. They say that males hatch at a temperature of 28.5 °C, but females require more heat - 32 °C.
Cubs hatched on the appointed day
Moreover, they say that they still need to sit in the sand for 26 hours, which is probably why the supervisors feel the place of masonry so carefully - the palm goes vertically into the sand in several places in turn.
If there is “something suspicious”, they use their palms to scoop it horizontally to the sides - in layers.
Probably for fear of hurting the kids who decided to get out on their own :)
If they don’t find anything, they bury everything again, make the appropriate notes in their notebook and place a wire frame over the masonry - until next time.
Yes, so the kids get out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when small turtles are hatching from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the hatchlings and they will go astray. They should have time to get to the water before dawn and the heat sets in. Those who are late are destroyed by the hot rays of the sun or end up as food for birds. One of their most dangerous enemies on earth is the fox. Of course, even once at sea, the cubs cannot be considered completely safe. Having not reached a certain size, they serve as tasty food for fish.
Instinct leads adults back to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there in order to give life to a new generation.
There are 17 beaches in Turkey where sea turtles lay their eggs, among them the most important are, for example, Iztuzu, Patara, the Gösu River delta, Belek - all of them have the status of protected areas.
I actually disagree about Belek, but it’s not for me to judge.
Well, we came here knowing that Caretta breeds here and that we need to run in the morning (we’ve read too much, but what about sh!) to the beach and peer at the people walking past.
Oga. Only when we went out to the beach, we completely forgot about it - after all, it’s a sea! It's half past six in the morning and very warm. And the sea is gentle and the air is warm and my temperature has been 38.2 since yesterday.
And here, literally 25 meters from us, it is obvious. And we are in water up to our chests.
In general, they caught us by surprise, but we grabbed our cameras and ran :)
And there, special guys write down in a special notebook how many pieces from which hole number when they got out.
An assortment of people lined up in two ranks and cheered with the very welcoming cries of the kids, of which there were four.
The guys shout at the onlookers so that they don’t inadvertently disturb them :) They chased me away when I was standing half a meter to the side of the highway - you never know, maybe the kid wants to turn?
In general there were four supervisors. What about the bullshit? Responsible work!
One takes notes.
One - with an important plaque on his chest, like, the main one.
He makes all the decisions about all the movements of the supervisors in the turtle case.
One - raises and lowers and, if necessary, carries into a common pile no longer needed wire frames, which are installed above the masonry while the baby is still in the sand.
And he also carries a bucket.
One - I don’t know why, probably for company.
The bucket is a separate issue: we watched four kids moving towards the water. One of them was very weak. At all:(
They put it in this very bucket. They probably took it to the turtle cemetery :(
While the turtles are crawling towards the water (and it’s funny, the closer they are to the water, the faster they run, they even jump :) it feels like they feel it, even though they were born just a few minutes ago :)), the supervisors are busy with a very important task: they carefully they dig up the masonry - their former home, everyone checks to see if there is anything left there, they count the peels, put them back and bury the masonry.
And they don’t go anywhere until the turtles swim away :)
And even if a turtle, which itself is still the size of 3/4 of a cigarette pack, turns over after falling off a pebble on the beach, it doesn’t need help; a specially trained guy helps it in some strange, but probably more effective way: he doesn’t turn it over, he offers her a finger, helping her to tighten her little snares and roll over on her own :)
As soon as the baby finally and confidently floats away, they collect their things and go to the next clutch.
The whole crowd is behind them.
We visited this little Turkish Venice this year.
"Dalyan" means fishing in Turkish.
There are also a lot of legends about the river. One of them is about twins, a boy and a girl. About how the girl Biblios fell in love with her brother Kaunos. When she revealed her feelings, her brother had to leave the city. girl from unrequited love decides to die, throw himself off the biggest cliff. But the goddesses of spring waters do not allow the girl to die. They turn the girl into the Dalyan spring.
The place is actually very beautiful.
Of course the weather that day was rainy. This one was a bit unlucky. The excursion costs 65 euros. We bought it at the hotel from tour operators. But outside the hotel it is 2 times less. It took 3.5 hours to get to this picturesque place. The price of the tour included meals.
1. Blue crab fishing
This is where we caught blue crab. For bait.
We caught these beauties, we could take pictures with them, and then release them into the wild. Back to sea. After fishing, we were offered a crab lunch for an additional fee. When we bought the tour, we were told that a crab lunch was included in the price. But it turned out differently. For one serving 7 cu. + drinks and beer were also paid.
They taste sweet, tender, juicy, well, very tasty. (You could also make a wish).
After such lunch we went to look at the Caretta-Caretta turtles. And suddenly we hear from the guide... That you may not see turtles.
On the way to the turtles we admired:
2. Lycian tombs
Another name is "Royal Tombs". It’s beautiful, of course the tombs are empty. But an architectural monument.
And so we arrived at the habitat of turtles... And in reality we did not see any of them. Maybe the weather was bad.
3. Visiting turtles
We didn’t see any turtles, but we did visit one of the most beautiful beaches in Iztuzu. Where is the Aegean Sea.
Sunbeds were also paid, and for some reason no one told us about this either. But the weather wasn't too good. Therefore, it was not possible to swim in the sea.
A species of sea turtle regularly observed: Caretta-Caretta, Caretta-Caretta turtles are on the list of endangered animals. The fact is that for a long time they were considered a delicacy not only in the Far East, but also in some European countries (for example, France and Italy).
These marine reptiles have lived on Earth for 95 million years. Adult turtles reach sizes of 115-150 cm, while their weight is about 70-90 kg.....
The Caretta Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles go out onto the sand and, using their hind legs, dig several holes, then, choosing, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but it will lay all its eggs in only one of them. The process of laying eggs lasts for hours and experts say that the female turtle does not experience positive emotions at this moment.
This tedious procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). And from July to September small turtles begin to appear. They say that males hatch at a temperature of 28.5 °C, but females require more heat - 32 °C.
Cubs hatched on the appointed day
Moreover, they say that they still need to sit in the sand for 26 hours, which is probably why the supervisors feel the place of masonry so carefully - the palm goes vertically into the sand in several places in turn.
If there is “something suspicious”, they use their palms to scoop it horizontally to the sides - in layers.
Probably for fear of hurting the kids who decided to get out on their own :)
If they don’t find anything, they bury everything again, make the appropriate notes in their notebook and place a wire frame over the masonry - until next time.
Yes, so the kids get out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when small turtles are hatching from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the hatchlings and they will go astray. They should have time to get to the water before dawn and the heat sets in. Those who are late are destroyed by the hot rays of the sun or end up as food for birds. One of their most dangerous enemies on earth is the fox. Of course, even once at sea, the cubs cannot be considered completely safe. Having not reached a certain size, they serve as tasty food for fish.
Instinct leads adults back to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there in order to give life to a new generation.
There are 17 beaches in Turkey where sea turtles lay their eggs, among them the most important are, for example, Iztuzu, Patara, the Gösu River delta, Belek - all of them have the status of protected areas.
I actually disagree about Belek, but it’s not for me to judge.
Well, we came here knowing that Caretta breeds here and that we need to run in the morning (we’ve read too much, but what about sh!) to the beach and peer at the people walking past.
Oga. Only when we went out to the beach, we completely forgot about it - after all, it’s a sea! It's half past six in the morning and very warm. And the sea is gentle and the air is warm and my temperature has been 38.2 since yesterday.
And here, literally 25 meters from us, it is obvious. And we are in water up to our chests.
In general, they caught us by surprise, but we grabbed our cameras and ran :)
And there, special guys write down in a special notebook how many pieces from which hole number when they got out.
An assortment of people lined up in two ranks and cheered with the very welcoming cries of the kids, of which there were four.
The guys shout at the onlookers so that they don’t inadvertently disturb them :) They chased me away when I was standing half a meter to the side of the highway - you never know, maybe the kid wants to turn?
In general there were four supervisors. What about the bullshit? Responsible work!
One takes notes.
One - with an important plaque on his chest, like, the main one.
He makes all the decisions about all the movements of the supervisors in the turtle case.
One - raises and lowers and, if necessary, carries into a common pile no longer needed wire frames, which are installed above the masonry while the baby is still in the sand.
And he also carries a bucket.
One - I don’t know why, probably for company.
The bucket is a separate issue: we watched four kids moving towards the water. One of them was very weak. At all:(
They put it in this very bucket. They probably took it to the turtle cemetery :(
While the turtles are crawling towards the water (and it’s funny, the closer they are to the water, the faster they run, they even jump :) it feels like they feel it, even though they were born just a few minutes ago :)), the supervisors are busy with a very important task: they carefully they dig up the masonry - their former home, everyone checks to see if there is anything left there, they count the peels, put them back and bury the masonry.
And they don’t go anywhere until the turtles swim away :)
And even if a turtle, which itself is still the size of 3/4 of a cigarette pack, turns over after falling off a pebble on the beach, it doesn’t need help; a specially trained guy helps it in some strange, but probably more effective way: he doesn’t turn it over, he offers her a finger, helping her to tighten her little snares and roll over on her own :)
As soon as the baby finally and confidently floats away, they collect their things and go to the next clutch.
The whole crowd is behind them.
