The nesting season for female brown and green sea turtles began during May and will continue until August, along all of Israel's Mediterranean beaches. The females go up to the shore, dig nests and lay dozens of eggs in each pit. After the laying, which may take several hours, the female sea turtle covers the pit and will return to the sea.
Nature and Parks Authority volunteers, Kobi Sofer and Sagi Marom, arrived last Thursday morning at Ashkelon beach following a report by Oded Saada, a volunteer from the Ashkelon Scanners group, regarding the discovery of signs of a female sea turtle ascending the shore. The nest, containing 74 eggs, was relocated by Kobi and Sagi to the new incubation farm at Tel Ashkelon National Park. On Saturday, a second nest of a brown sea turtle female was found in the Nitzanim Nature Reserve. Guy Shonk, a scanning volunteer in the Zikim Ashkelon Scanners group, located the signs of the female sea turtle's ascent and protected the nest.
This week, Moshe Rafael, a scanning volunteer from Megadim, located signs of a brown sea turtle female's ascent in Atlit. The ranger Alon Pen from the Nature and Parks Authority who arrived at the scene, relocated 81 eggs to the Galim Beach farm. The Nature and Parks Authority notes that the scans carried out in the early morning hours, make it possible to protect the eggs from predators or human activity on the beaches. "Last year, 558 nests were located on the country's beaches, of which 449 were of brown sea turtles and 109 green. Most of them were relocated by rangers, ecologists and certified volunteers, to protected incubation farms, where it will be possible for the future generation of sea turtles, to develop without fear of predators, until the moment the hatchlings emerge from the nest and begin their lives in the open sea.
In addition to relocating the nests, there are nests that were located in nature reserves and national parks of the Nature and Parks Authority, but were not relocated to farms, but will rather receive protection against predators, to which an explanatory sign for the general public will be attached in order to keep the nest in a natural area", adds Rinat Kashi, national interface coordinator of sea turtle reproduction and research at the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center at the Nature and Parks Authority.
Did you see sea turtle tracks on the beach? Please report quickly
The Nature and Parks Authority calls on the public to report signs of female sea turtles on the shore, as soon as possible, in order to allow rangers to arrive to relocate the nest to an incubation farm in a nature reserve, especially in urban beach areas where there is particularly active bather traffic during the summer season. The female sea turtle is very sensitive to any disturbance, and if she is not given the opportunity to lay in peace or does not find a suitable place for laying, she will return to the sea without laying the eggs. She may try again the next day, but if this time she also does not succeed she may lay the eggs in the sea (then the survival chances of the eggs are zero), or worse – the eggs will not be laid, and instead will rot in her body and cause the female's death.
"The fear is from the deletion and blurring of the signs of the female sea turtles' ascent, so that the nest might be harmed by human activity or predators (foxes, jackals, dogs and wild birds) and the hatchlings during the emergence, may be exposed to life-threatening threats for them, ranging from trampling by passers-by, vehicles, dogs and incorrect orientation on the beach due to light pollution", notes Kashi.
How can the female sea turtles and the future generation be protected?
- In case you identified tracks, do not blur or step on them, to allow quick identification by the rangers and volunteers, whether it is a false crawl or a nesting that requires appropriate treatment.
- Prevent blurring actions by beach users in the environment, ranging from people, vehicles, pets and tractors raking the sand.
- Do not try to locate the nest, but rather report quickly to the Nature and Parks Authority hotline at number *3639. If you have the possibility, we would be happy if you wait near the tracks until the arrival of volunteers or rangers.
- It is forbidden to try to dig and relocate the sea turtle nests – this is an action that requires professional knowledge on behalf of Nature and Parks Authority rangers and an attempt to relocate eggs might cause the death of the embryos in the eggs.
What to do when you see a female sea turtle coming up to the beach to lay eggs?
- Sometimes you will encounter a female sea turtle that comes up to the beach, or is in the midst of digging and laying the eggs. Report immediately upon finding her to the Authority's hotline, keep a distance of at least 20 meters and stand behind her, so as not to disturb her and to be outside her field of vision.
- It is forbidden to shine flashlights on her or to take photos using a flash on a cell phone or a camera, it is recommended to keep quiet and not to try to help her in any way. Furthermore, do not assist her in returning to the sea or blur the tracks.
- One should not search for nesting female sea turtles, since this may cause fatal harm to the continued existence of the species.
- The female sea turtles leave clear tracks behind them in the sand and the tracks help Nature and Parks Authority rangers and certified volunteers who were trained for this to locate the nests and save them.
- Female sea turtles come up to lay, usually, in the same area where they themselves hatched, and only a small percentage of nests are laid at more distant sites.
- Increasing use by humans of the beaches, over the years, causes the destruction of the nesting beaches and makes reproduction difficult: Residential and tourism buildings, restaurants, roads, factories, marinas, breakwaters and ports reduce the beach area available to the nesting female.
- Noise, strong lighting and human presence on the beaches during the night disturb the females coming up to the shore to lay and frighten them.