The Night of Crossed Destinies

North Cyprus Turtle Project invites you to experience a marvel of nature. You can observe sea turtles laying eggs in the silence and darkness of the midnight beach… An opportunity of a lifetime …

I already knew, on our way to Alagadi, that it would be a poetic night. A full moon, the stillness of the mountains beyond the beach, and the gentle breeze carrying the salty breath of the Mediterranean… We drive to Alagadi, known alternatively by locals as the Turtle Beach. It has been estimated that as few as 300-400 green turtles and 2,000 loggerheads nest throughout the Mediterranean each year. For both species, but in particular the Green Turtle, Northern Cyprus is clearly an extremely important nesting site. Alagadi is considered to be the fifth major nesting site in the Mediterranean for Loggerhead and Green turtles.
We take the turn right and follow signposts to ‘Turtle Project’. The information office, situated some distance from the beach, is known as the Goatshed. This is our meeting point before we set out to observe the nesting of sea turtles tonight. North Cyprus Turtle Project, known as the Marine Turtle Research Group, was initiated in 1992 by Kuzey Kibris Kaplumbagalari Koruma Dernegi (Society for the Protection of Turtles in Northern Cyprus, KKKKD/SPOT), which invited staff and students from Glasgow University to conduct a survey of the nesting beaches in Northern Cyprus. This took the form of an undergraduate expedition lasting three months. Since 1992 over 200 students and staff from British universities have taken part in the annual monitoring and conservation of marine turtles in Northern Cyprus. Work is carried out at the request of and in conjunction with members of the local Society for the Protection of Turtles and the local Department of Environmental Protection.
Around 21:00, we start our long walk from the goatshed to the beach under the guidance of the students who are involved in the Turtle Project. It is a night when destinies cross: the full moon above, the guests that accompany our walk and the mother turtle who is now swimming somewhere in the sea towards some point on the beach to lay her eggs. It is as if we are marching to meet our fate for tonight, somehow taking us to this silent corner of nature. I think of people in the city, killing time in front of their tellies. I am filled with the enthusiasm and delight of being here, and I cannot help but picture in my mind the mother turtle now somewhere in the sea, heading to our shore.

A Patch of Dark on the Sand
21:30… We lay our belongings at a point on the sand. One of the students says a female turtle is approaching. She crawls out of the sea, pausing frequently as if carefully scoping out her spot. We should stop at a distance so as not to alarm her. Maybe she will decide to stay over, and we can then approach her. Sometimes it happens that a turtle crawls out of the sea but for some unknown reason decides not to nest. This is called a "false crawl": it can happen naturally, be caused by artificial lighting or by the presence of people on the beach. All we can do for now is to wait until the students tell us the time is right to approach her.
Normally the students survey the beach every five minutes to check if some turtle comes nesting, and to inspect the nests that are close to hatching. Tonight we do not hear of any other turtles. There is only the one close to us. We learn that when the moon is full turtles are less liable to come to the shore for nesting and besides they usually tend to come much later in the night. This night it seems we are in luck. Whilst waiting we approach Robin Snape, the 25 year old project leader, to obtain some information about the marine turtles that visit Alagadi and the Turtle Project.

Turtles Visiting Alagadi and the Turtle Project
Robin tells us that two types of sea turtles come to lay their eggs at Alagadi: Loggerheads, which are publicly known as Caretta Caretta; and Green turtles. Green turtles, which grow bigger than the Loggerheads, come in large numbers, says Robin, especially this year. They are more specific about their nesting places than the Loggerheads. The Turtle Project volunteers and staff survey the beaches both day and night. They have two groups, working in shifts. Although their main headquarters is in Alagadi, they also have teams in Güzelyurt and Karpaz. Robin says the living conditions and opportunities differ from one base to another, so they regularly change places to be fair to all. For instance, the three students living in Karpaz are staying in a fire station with the firemen. This may be limiting to their social life. At the same time, Robin does not forget to mention the kind people who so generously offered them friendly places in which to stay.
Robin receives a message from the students who have been observing the mother turtle from close by, and now we know it is time…. it is time to meet our little girl who was swimming to the shore as we were walking to the beach.

Our Lady Turtle is Nesting
Sea turtles are generally slow and awkward on land, and nesting is exhausting work. The female turtle flings away loose sand with her flippers. She constructs a body pit by digging with her flippers and rotating her body. After the body pit is complete she digs an egg cavity, using her cupped rear flippers as shovels. The egg cavity is shaped roughly like a teardrop and is usually tilted slightly. When the turtle has finished digging the egg chamber she begins to lay her eggs. The average size of a clutch ranges from about 80 to 120 eggs. However, only a few of them produce healthy hatchlings. Nesting sea turtles appear to shed tears, but the turtle is just excreting the salt that accumulates in her body. Many people believe that while laying her eggs a sea turtle goes into a trance from which she cannot be disturbed. This is not entirely true. A sea turtle is least likely to abandon nesting when she is laying her eggs, but some turtles will abort the process if they are harassed or feel they are in danger. For this reason, it is important that sea turtles are never disturbed during nesting. As our lady, a Green Turtle, starts laying her eggs students measure her and keep her records. Her shell is 87cm, which is quite big for a Green Turtle. I ask Robin her age. He says it is not possible to tell exactly, but the project records have her tagged previously on this beach about 10 years ago. Then we calculate: given the fact that turtles reach adulthood at 30, and she was tagged some ten years ago, she might be around 40 years old. However it is quite possible that she used to come here before she was tagged. Therefore, according to Robin, she might well be 50 or even up to 80 years old.
Once all the eggs are in the chamber the mother turtle uses her rear flippers to push sand over the top of the egg cavity. Gradually, she packs the sand down over the top and then begins using her front flippers to refill the body pit and disguise the nest. The students mark the egg chamber by placing some sticks around it because, as she throws sand in all directions, it is hard to locate the nest afterwards. When she has moved about 2-3 metres from the nest the students start digging to identify the exact location of the egg chamber. Once they locate it, they place a cage around the nest to protect it from dangers. The last thing we want, says Graham Mumby, the project coordinator, is someone to drive a parasol directly into a nest so we place these cages over them. Another danger comes from predators. As the hatchlings start to come out they spread a particular smell, which is scented by dogs wandering around. Attracted by the smell the dogs will dig the ground to reach the hatchlings and eat them. For this reason a net is also placed over the nest.

Significant Work for Natural Survival
23:30… Our lady turtle looks exhausted now. Whilst watching her one feels very sensitive about the threats that endanger the turtles’ existence. I have always felt attracted to their elegant nature; the hard work of their motherhood, their mysterious selectivity of beaches, their lovely babies… but here, watching her laying eggs and undertaking this exhausting job with her big and aged body, is an extraordinary feeling. After throwing sand for a couple of minutes using her flippers, she stops to rest briefly. Then, taking a deep breath, she starts moving her flippers again…
According to information from Robin a turtle nests almost five times a season, leaving approximately a hundred eggs in each nest. Out of five hundred eggs around 350 will hatch, but only one in a thousand hatchlings will survive to adulthood and be able to carry on the cycle of life. Therefore, Robin stresses, if a turtle gets hurt or killed it puts at risk their very existence. Threats are not limited to the low rate of reaching adulthood, unfortunately. Sea turtles also face a myriad of dangers: industrial fishing, coastal development, and global climate change pose the greatest challenges to their continued survival. Due to these threats, many sea turtle species are now listed as endangered. Given all these facts you truly appreciate all the hard work done by the students, volunteers, and staff here at the Turtle Project to help save the lives of these turtles …

Back to the Sea
Our lady Green Turtle is now happy with the concealment of her nest. She slowly crawls her way back into the sea. Exhausted, she will rest in the waters to regain her strength before nesting again later in the season, finally beginning the migration back to her feeding ground. She meets the dark waters washed by blue moonlight, slowly disappearing, giving her bodily weight to the sea.
For us, the visitors, she came out of nowhere and she has returned to a mysterious corner of the deep. Somehow the paths of our destinies crossed tonight… my eyes wander the long beach as far as I can see under the dim moonlight. I see tens of nests marked by cages around them. I try imagining how wonderful it would feel to be able to experience this extraordinary event every night. In the dark, on the beach, you secretly become a part of nature – the realm of marvels.

Baby Caretta Carettas Surprise Us
As we were packing for our return journey, we approached a nest protected by a ring cage and a pyramid cage. Whilst trying to take a photo of this cage in the dark, holding our torches, we suddenly discovered a little baby turtle! And then another one! We yelled at the students “there are baby turtles here!” They came at once to record the hatching nest. The babies, they told us, are Caretta Caretta turtles. They, the students tell us, are identified by being totally black and, to our amazement, they told us that they might excavate the nest the next day! Nothing will hold us back from coming here and seeing baby Caretta Carettas coming out of their nest!

*published in Caretta Magazine, Aug 2008
** see "Caretta Caretta Babies Come Out!" - sequel to this article