Caretta-Caretta Sea Turtles of Northern
Cyprus
There are two main types of sea-turles nesting along the coasts of Northern Cyprus;
these are: Caretta-Caretta (Sini Kaplumbagasi), and Chelonia-Mydas (Yesil Kaplumbaga).
The both are listed as endangered species and under strict protection. The egging
season of these sea-turtles is from mid-May until mid-October. The turtles make
their nests [in the beach] by digging the sand 30-60 cm deep. If they succeed
laying their eggs and that the eggs are not harmed, the baby turtles crawl down
to the sea in about 55-60 days. And if the baby turtles manage to survive, they
come back to lay their eggs there in 30 years time. It is noted that only one
out of four thousand baby sea-turtles manage to survive until their adolescence.
During their lifetime, and especially when they lay their eggs, the sea-turtles
are especially vulnerable to external dangers, such as other sea or land animals,
noise, pollution, rubbish, and et cetera. The Enviromental Protection Office of
Northern Cyprus, together with envioment related NGOs [such as Society for Protection
of Marine-turtles, Green Peace Movement of N.Cyprus, and N.Cyprus National Trust]
are very active in the protection of the sea turtlrs of Northern Cyprus, which
is home to these friendly guests of our island.
