AP reports from Lara Beach in Cyprus that for Green and Loggerhead turtles, a stretch of beach on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been their home for thousands of years.
Against the setting sun, the tiny turtles that have just hatched on Lara Beach strain against the surf to reach the Mediterranean Sea and embark on their life’s journey.
And in 20 to 30 years, they’ll be back at this exact location to lay their own eggs.
After being hunted to near extinction during the first half of the last century, the Mediterranean’s endangered Loggerhead and Green turtles are making a comeback thanks to pioneering conservation efforts, Cypriot marine biologists say.
When those efforts started in 1978, there were just 300 turtle nests on the island’s beaches where the reptiles return to lay their eggs. The population has grown to around 1,100 nests last year, said Andreas Demetropoulos, the founder and co-head of a turtle conservation program under the island-nation’s Fisheries and Marine Research Department.
That may not sound a lot, but with the turtles’ reproductive cycles stretching out as long as three decades, the results are “quite spectacular,” noted Demetropoulos.
This rise is especially encouraging for the Green turtle, which lays its eggs in only two countries — Turkey and European Union member Cyprus. There are only about 1,500 female Green turtles that lay eggs in those two countries, as opposed to 6,000 female Loggerhead — or Careta Careta — turtles that lay eggs across the Mediterranean.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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