Almost 91,250 baby caretta carettas reached sea in 2016: Ministry

ISTANBUL

A total of 91,242 baby loggerhead sea turtles (caretta caretta) reached the sea in 2016, the Turkish Environment and Urbanization Ministry has announced. 

The General Directorate of the Protection of Natural Heritage under the ministry said it maintained its efforts for the protection of endangered species such as the loggerhead sea turtles and flamingos in Turkey. 
 
The ministry said they achieved the results after working at five special protection areas, adding that the caretta carettas had reached the sea with meticulous efforts.

Some 2,508 of the sea turtles on the shores of the Göksü area in the Mediterranean province of Mersin, 5,550 of them in Muğla’s Fethiye-Göcek districts, 11,605 in the Patara area in Antalya, 41,962 in Antalya’s Belek district, and 29,617 in Muğla’s Köyceğiz and Dalyan districts were delivered to the sea, according to data from the ministry.

It stated that a total of 91,242 baby caretta carettas reached the sea in 2016. In 2014, 56,522 of them; and in 2015, 68,140 of them were brought to the sea in 2015.

In addition, the ministry said it maintained its efforts to protect flamingos as part of a projected called “Project of Protecting and Monitoring Bird Species Living in Wetlands.” 

It also announced that 9,564 flamingo chicks were living nearby the Tuz Lake in Central Anatolia. 

Flamingos, according to the ministry, reach their natural habitats after completing their development process. 

The ministry announced that it would continue its efforts to protect flamingos in 2017 too.