By IPS Correspondents
ALGADI BEACH, CYPRUS, Mar 11 2002 (IPS)

In existence for some 95 million years, the noted Mediterranean Sea Turtles are facing growing threats of extinction under the impact of modern fishing methods, expanding tourism and pollution.

With the number of annually nesting females down to a few hundreds, students and scientists from afar join local people in a struggle to save the species on the pristine beaches of Alagadi in northern Cyprus and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

It is an uphill battle, but there are reasons for hope, according experts and local people.

Says Kutlay Keco, a Turkish Cypriot on the coastal town of Kyrenia who has been watching and assisting sea turtles at the nearby Alagadi Beach for some 50 years: “At least, the problem is better known now, compared to 10 years ago. And people from all over are showing interest and joining our fight to save them.”

Ecologists from all around Europe have rolled back plans for an elaborate hotel on the beaches of Dalyan in Southern Turkey and related action in Greece, where fear exists currently that the windfall from the film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin could lead to plans for development of Cephalonia beaches noted as the nesting round for loggerhead turtles.

There now are Save-the-Turtles societies in most Mediterranean countries, including growing involvement by official environmental protection units. United Nations agencies and the World Wildlife Fund support local actions.

In Cyprus, Keco is a link with scientists from universities in the United Kingdom and local experts, students and devotees from Europe and local populace, as they literally join hands in “policing” the beaches overnight, fight off predators of eggs (stray dogs, foxes, jackals), tag turtles with electronic devices to track their movements and lecture anyone and everyone, including sun-seeking tourists, on the necessity to save the rare and mysterious breed.

Of the two species that nest on Mediterranean beaches – the loggerhead Caretta caretta and the green turtle Chelonia mydas – the total female population nesting annually is estimated at 300 to 400 for the green and 2,000 for the loggerhead.

Currently, conservationists list loggerhead turtle as “endangered globally” (they also exist in tropical Atlantic and Pacific waters and beaches) and the Mediterranean the green turtle as “critically endangered”.

Some 30 percent of Mediterranean green turtles and 10 percent of loggerheads nest in Cyprus, according to the Society for he Protection of Turtles in Kyrenia. An international convention bans trade in both. Fishermen say they have no use for them (some say they bring bad luck) but catch them accidentally in a trade in which surface longlines and drifting gill nets are said to date back 2,000 years. Some are still believed to be sold, however.

Human-induced threats also include the “I didn’t-knows…”, lights on beaches disorienting both nesting females and hatchlings trying to get to the sea, beach furniture on the nesting areas blocking access to the beach, heavily trafficked beach paths, planting shade trees, or setting up umbrellas, human presence on the nesting beaches at night scaring sea turtles trying to nest, sand castles trapping hatchlings in their race to the sea and plastic bags taken for something to eat and clogging intestines.

Also, turtles still have to face hazards from nature itself; wind, rain and cold and unnaturally high tides and predators on land and sea.

A combination of such factors leads to only one hatchling in 2,000 surviving to maturity.

And as for the species, they have particular habits that may play a role in their scarcity, making them more precious: if they survive a 45-60 days of incubation in the sand, they emerge from eggs and make a run for the sea and swim frantically to offshore water.

They mate when they reach the age of 25 and during a nesting season a female lays 3-4 nests, each containing about 100 eggs. She may nest every 1-3 years usually returning to the same beach.

As for the main threat from booming beach tourism, turtle lovers say they have nothing against them, pointing out that one hotel near this beach in northern Cyprus is a major contributor to efforts to save turtles.

The tourists, according to ecologists, should just abstain from midnight serenades, driving, bonfires on such beaches – and should join what some wish could become a new trend: Turtle Tourism, taking part, as some 4,000 did in northern Cyprus last year, in organised turtle watches and see them hatch.

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