Threatened turtles find refuge in war-torn Libya

A local volunteer programme sees loggerhead nest numbers more than double in a decade

Endangered loggerhead turtles are laying more nests than a decade ago in Libya. Getty

A plucky group of volunteers has scored a rare environmental win after their work to protect loggerhead turtles was rewarded with a doubling of the number of nests on the Libyan coast.

When a UN-funded programme to increase numbers of the endangered species was interrupted by a conflict that would span 12 years, the creatures were left to fend for themselves.

Conservationists consider the North African country’s 1,800km stretch of relatively undeveloped Mediterranean coastline to be one of the world’s most important refuges for loggerhead turtles burying their eggs.

Recognisable by their large, brawny heads and reddish-brown, heart-shaped carapaces, loggerhead turtles were listed as a threatened species in 1978 under the US Endangered Species Act.

Countries around the world, including Libya, have since banned their killing and capture.

Each year, thousands of loggerhead turtles drown in fishing boat dragnets, ingest toxic plastics and have their nesting grounds demolished by urban development.

Rising sea levels also threaten to swallow their beaches.

After the UN's Libyan team disbanded, a group of Libyan volunteers relaunched the initiative themselves about a year into the war. And despite having no funding or official support, their efforts are paying off.

Nesting sites around Libya are on the rise, said the group, known as the Libyan Sea Turtles Programme.

In one stretch of sand monitored closely by the conservationists, they reported 494 nests last year, up from 271 in 2011.

Because of their migratory nature and globally scattered nests, there is no precise data on how many loggerheads exist.

Like nearly all sea turtle species, loggerhead populations have been in decline for decades because of human activity, though in recent years conservation work has helped stabilise them.

In the clutch

Around Libya’s coastal city of Misurata, a hotspot for nests, the volunteers patrol the beaches at night. That is when female turtles swim to shore and bury their eggs.

The volunteers search for turtle tracks in the sand that can lead to a clutch, or nest, of sea turtle eggs.

Loggerhead nesting season runs from May until July. From August to October, the eggs hatch.

A single clutch typically carries over 100 eggs. But only a tiny fraction survive to adulthood (estimates run from one in 1,000 to as few as one in 10,000).

The vast majority of hatchlings are picked off by birds and crabs, or simply dehydrate before wriggling into the water.

The volunteers try to maximise their terrible odds.

Teams of three to six move clutches to safer locations, away from prying animals and poachers, and place protective nets over them.

During hatching season they assist baby turtles in their short but perilous journey to sea.

Before UN funding was cut, the group put tracking devices on female turtles to monitor migration and nesting patterns.

But such tech is long gone. Today the all-volunteer programme grumbles that the state is disinterested.

“We are tackling a problem that the state has been unable to solve,” said Rabih Abu Zeid, 36, an environmentalist with the group.

For the turtles, threats are everywhere. Some Libyans prize sea turtle eggs for their supposed ability to cure disease and infertility.

Others hunt them for a healthy meal, said environmental activist Amer Algammal, 32.

And like elsewhere, in Libya their beaches are being destroyed. In 2009, the construction of a power plant near Sirte demolished one of Libya’s most active nesting sites, Qubeiba Beach.

Libya’s coastal waters are increasingly choked with industrial and agricultural waste, said Mr Abu Zeid.

Despite the enormous challenges, the last few years have been relatively good for loggerhead turtles.

The IUCN red list, which tracks at-risk wildlife, upgraded loggerheads in 2015 to “vulnerable” from “endangered,” citing intensive conservation efforts as behind the improvement, particularly in the Mediterranean, in a testament to the Libyan team’s work.

“What has kept turtle numbers up on Libya’s coast is the team’s interest in them, and giving the turtles a special environment that makes them happy to lay eggs,” said Mr Algammal.

This article has been published in collaboration with Egab