Israel Sea Turtle Tracking Project 2008: Loggerhead & Green Turtles

A project of Marine Turtle Research Group in conjunction with the partners and sponsors detailed below.

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Israel Sea Turtle Tracking Project 2008: Loggerhead & Green Turtles
NameSpeciesLife StageRelease DateLast LocationDays Transmitted
ZiggiLoggerheadadult2009-05-282010-07-26424
BetzetLoggerheadAdult2010-06-232010-09-0574
HaifaLoggerheadadult2008-07-192009-11-05474
BarakaLoggerheadadult2009-02-222009-08-21180
Eve (Hava)Green TurtleAdult2008-07-292008-08-1921
Scarlet (Argaman)LoggerheadAdult2009-07-082010-06-01328
AshkelonGreen Turtleadult2009-06-272009-08-2155
CinderellaLoggerheadAdult2009-07-052009-12-31179
ForrestLoggerheadAdult2010-04-272010-09-07133
SharonGreen TurtleAdult2009-06-202010-06-09354

Click on an animal's name for maps and more information.

Introduction



Israel National Nature and Parks Authority (INNPA) conducts a management plan for sea turtles since the 1980s. During more than 20 years, rangers are surveying the Mediterranean coasts, tracking, protecting and relocating loggerhead and green turtles' nests into hatcheries in coastal nature reserves. The hatcheries are protected and during the hatching season, the hatchlings are released by the help of rangers and volunteers.

More than 50,000 hatchlings were released so far.

In 1999 INNPA established a sea turtle rescue center and every year dozens of wounded turtles are rehabilitated and more than 60% are released back to the wild. The turtles suffer from various injuries that result from fishing activity, pollution, plastic debris etc'. One part of the rescue center’s work is raising a breeding stock of green sea turtles. Their offspring will be released to the sea from the hatcheries.

An additional activity of the INNPA is sampling stranded sea turtle carcasses in order to collect different data, such as genetic information, population size and distribution.

All of the above information is included in a research program based in the Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Center. The sea turtles are considered as an umbrella species therefore, the management plan activities, the research and the conclusions help us as a tool in declaring nature reserves and in raising pubic awareness through the media and guided tours.