Turtle migrations patterns are tracked

News - Latest News

Monday, 21 February 2005

The Sea Turtle Research Project is one of the Environmental Investment Programme (EIP) projects being conducted in Turkey. One aspect of the study involves the use of satellite technology to trace the migration patterns of green turtles. Information gathered by the project will improve scientists' understanding of the ecology of green turtles that live in the eastern Mediterranean and may help environmental management of the Ceyhan area. With this project, Sea Turtle observation in Turkey via satellites was carried out for the first time. The project involved attaching transmitters to the backs of four adult female green sea turtles as they headed back to the sea after laying their eggs in July on Sugözü and Akkum beaches in Ceyhan and Yumurtalık. The transmitters enable us to track the movements of the turtles 24 hours a day. The results can be monitored on the Internet by logging on to www.seaturtle.org Since July, two of the turtles have moved south and are living on the coast just at the border of Syria and Lebanon. These turtles have travelled approximately 500 km on their journeys. It is unclear whether the turtles will stay in this area over the winter or whether they have just stopped to get food. The other two turtles have moved steadily west along the Turkish coast. Each of these turtles has travelled in excess of 1,000 km. They are now both located near Antalya in southwest Turkey. Works of observation, tracing and protection of sea turtles on the Turkey’s Mediterranean beaches have been going on for about 20 years. For the first time in this project, we witnessed the emergence of a male turtle onto land. He had the courage to come all the way onto the beach in order to mate with a female turtle.

Last Updated ( Friday, 30 March 2007 )