Caretta caretta ‘Tuba’ monitored via satellite
MUĞLA
A caretta caretta, named “Tuba,” which was installed a satellite tracking device last year in August by the staff of the Sea Turtle Research Rescue Rehabilitation Center (DEKAMER) in the western province of Muğla’s Dalyan district and set to the sea, has traveled 5,500 kilometers since then.
Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, DEKAMER scientific coordinator Doğan Sözbilen said that they carried out various researches on sea turtles and installed a satellite tracking device in Tuba, whose shell was cleaned in İztuzu Beach.
Stating that they do not know the entire life of sea turtles, their movements in the sea and what they were doing, Sözbilen noted that they are tracking turtles equipped with satellite tracking devices in recent years.
Expressing that they monitored how the turtle left to the sea is directed towards the beach or other directions, how it is affected by the magnetic field of the ground, and the direction of the current, Sözbilen continued as follows:
“In order to protect the sea turtles, it is important to know where the threats in the sea are coming from. We follow the migration routes of the caretta caretta Tuba. After her release, Tuba, who was off the coast of Marmaris for two months, left here and moved to Greece and then to the Balkans in about a month. So far, she has traveled 5,500 kilometers. She spent the whole winter off Malta. Moving to Italy with the arrival of summer, Tuba moved to Albania after staying in the Adriatic for a month and a half.”
Sözbilen said that the sea turtles that were monitored before usually went to North Africa. “Turtles, which usually go from Greece, spend the winter on the Adriatic side, but for the first time, we saw that an animal of ours went there. This was also interesting for us.”
Sözbilir added that they aim to receive data from the device for a longer period of time.
