Expert calls for protection of town hosting endemic species

ANTALYA

With Manavgat in the southern province of Antalya recently witnessing an influx of seabirds as the summer tourism season ends, an expert has called for an official protection declaration for the region, where an abundance of endemic flora and fauna thrive.

Hakan Sert from Akdeniz University emphasized that the shores are starting to reveal their "true inhabitants" with the decrease in intense human activities along the coast, with the end of summer tourism season, adding that loggerhead sea turtles, Mediterranean seals and sea daffodils constitute the natural treasures of the region.

"While during the summer, the same shoreline is frequented by a massive human crowd during the day, loggerhead sea turtles find the necessary warmth beneath the sands to lay their eggs and allow their hatchlings to emerge at night. Loggerhead sea turtles have been inhabiting these areas since the age of dinosaurs, long before the existence of humankind on the planet,” Sert explained.

Sert particularly noted that, while observing the increasingly abundant seagulls, he came across garbage up to the groins, pointing out that people tend to overlook other species that share the shoreline with humans when they use these areas.

"Not only do we neglect other species, but we often fail to consider that we will return here, or that other people will use the beach in the future. Every piece of waste we leave behind will eventually harm another human being or creature. For instance, transparent plastic bags, when discarded into the sea, resemble the dangerous sea nettles that we fear and are crucial in monitoring the population of loggerhead sea turtles, which ingest them and suffer fatal consequences."

"Furthermore, the discarded fishing lines, hooks, old net remnants and small plastic debris have been ingested by other creatures such as seagulls and loggerhead sea turtles, causing obstructions in their digestive systems. It must be remembered that for now, there is no other planet we can escape to, and on Earth, humans coexist with numerous beneficial organisms, contributing to the delicate ecological balance we refer to as the ecosystem,” he added.