Rare varieties

Endangered loggerheads (carette caretta)

Loggerhead is widely distributed in coastal tropic and subtropic waters around the world. Commonly this species wanders into temperature waters, and it is the also the only species which nest in temperature regions. Primarily species is inhabitant of continental shores of warm seas, common in shallow waters. Some specimens can undertake long migrations using warm currents (e.g. Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic).

The loggerhead mating season is from late March to early June. Little is known about courtship or mating habits of the loggerhead (or those of any other sea turtle, for that matter). This area is not well studied and needs further research so that we can better understand reproductive behaviours.

Loggerhead is the most common species in the Mediterranean and in the Adriatic Sea too. The major nesting sites of Mediterranean population are in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. There are also nesting activities on Libyan, Syrian, Israel, Tunisian and Egyptian coast as well. The female nesting population of this species in the Mediterranean is estimated on about 5,000 specimens.

Loggerheads nest at night. The average nesting usually occurs every two to three years, during the spring and summer, with peak in July, but this can vary from one to six years. In one nesting season female have between two and five clutches, with renesting frequency intervals of about two weeks. Clutch size varies from minimum of 23 to maximum of 190 eggs per clutch. Incubation period generally varies between 50 and 65 days. The time it takes for eggs to hatch is inversely related to temperature. As with all sea turtles, sex determination in hatchlings is also temperature dependent.

The length of hatchlings (straight carapace length) is between 33.5 and 55 mm. It is estimated that they reach sexual maturity in about 30 years, when they carapace length is in range from 70 to 90 cm.

The loggerhead shares the same threats that menace all marine turtles, because such a significant percentage of the world's loggerhead population lives in Gulf and southwest Atlantic waters, shrimp fishing, gill netting, and activities associated with offshore oil and gas exploitation are particulary dangerous to this species. Mediterranean population perhaps is a little bit lucky but danger is bigger because of very limited volume of them.

For concerning people...The conventions signed by Turkish government

Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution (Barcelona Convention), 1976 - Protocol concerning Mediterranean Specially Protected Areas (Geneva, 1982).

Within the framework of the Barcelona Convention, the Geneva Protocol is the main instrument dealing with the conservation of wildness. The Contracting Parties to this Protocol engage themselves to take all appropriate measures for protecting marine and coastal areas which are important for the safeguard of natural resources and natural sites of the Mediterranean Sea Area. Marine turtles have been recognized as species whose safeguard is a priority within the framework of the Convention: in 1985, at their fourth ordinary meeting, the Contracting parties adopted a declaration on the targets to be achieved as a matter of priority in the decade 1986-1995, referred to as the Genoa Declaration: among these objectives, there is the "protection of the endangered marine species (e.g. monk seal and Mediterranean sea turtles)". Following the Genoa declaration, an Action Plan for the conservation of Mediterranean marine turtles was adopted within the framework of the Convention; this Action Plan represent a global strategy for the conservation of the species, providing for a series of marine turtles protection and management measures. 20 Mediterranean countries are at present Parties to the Convention, namely. Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Croatia, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey. The European Community is also a part to the Convention as such.

Convention on the Conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats, signed at Bern on September 19, 1979.

The parties to this Convention have the obligation to protect species listed in the annexes as well as their habitant. Annex II is a list of the animal species which conservation has to be ensured by the parties, which shall forbid all forms of capturing, detention, intentional killing as well as the intentional deterioration or destruction of this animals sites of reproduction and resting areas. Annex III includes the animal species that the Parties shall protect by regulating their exploitation. All five marine turtles which may be found in the Mediterranean are listed in Annex II. Therefore, they must be fully protected by the Parties. The Mediterranean Coastal States parties to the Bern Convention are: Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta and Cyprus. The European Community is also party to the Convention as such. It is to note that although the Convention was initially concluded between Member States of the Council of Europe, the Convention is open for signature by non-European States. Tunisia and Morocco, for instance, have been invited by the Committee of Ministers of the European Council to adhere to the Convention.

The three on the right bottom of the picture are murex snails.

Aperlai, where you can snorkel over the sunken remains of this half submerged Lycian site. During Roman times Aperlai manufactured and traded the royal purple pigment, extracted from the Murex snail which can be found very rare.

The people especially women were wearing purple (Aperlai red or judas-tree red as father Noel's color) lingerie in the midnights of every 25th of December or in the year ends. The human were believing that this habit would bring chance and tranquility in their lives.

This special purple dye produced under extreme difficult conditions is so much valuable that emperor Diocletianus issued a law announcing on "the only usage of this dye would be colouring the toga of emperors"

Human threat

Since some animals like hedgehogs, moles and foxes are assumed as a threat for farming activities they are immediately killed in Demre. In some areas, the habit of catching the fishes with dynamite is also secretly continuing.