August 31, 2006—Life's a beach for baby loggerhead
sea turtles.
Turtle eggs need to incubate in sandy nests without parental patrols for about two months. Then the tiny hatchlings, which average 1.8 inches (45 millimeters) long, must emerge to make a nighttime dash to the ocean.
A variety of factors—from egg poaching to pollution to habitat loss—are taking a serious toll on loggerheads of all ages, and the species is currently classified as endangered by the World Conservation Union.
But humans can be the cure as well as the cause. In the midst of ongoing turmoil between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, volunteers and staff at the Jerusalem-based Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority have been taking time this summer to ensure baby turtles get safe passage to the Mediterranean Sea.
Ecologists with the authority recently transplanted loggerhead nests from open beaches to a protected hatchery near the northern Israeli town of Nahariyya (map of Israel). After three nights of natural hatchings, the conservationists dug out baby turtles that couldn't climb from their nests—like the newborn seen here on August 24—and helped them reach the water.
Last month an oil spill triggered by the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict claimed a variety of animals, including green sea turtles, as casualties of war. An Israeli strike against a Lebanese power plant dumped 15,000 tons (13,600 metric tons) of oil into the ocean, contaminating Lebanese beaches where turtles nest and threatening other eastern Mediterranean coastal habitats.
—Victoria Gilman
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