Protecting the Turtles at Çıralı Turkey

Yesterday I arrived back in Turkey.The beach here at Çıralı is famous among campers because its the best place to wild camp for free in Turkey. Our family was here for a month last year and really enjoyed the ancient ruins of Olympos right next to the beach.

This beach is protected from development because it is here that loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs. The baby turtles waddle down to the water at night so its hard to see them but many people do.

Unfortunately, big business is trying to get the land and start development of hotels. This hit the papers in Turkey but there is not much news in English.

My friend Apo who owns the Sahin Pension, was on the beach a few weeks ago with his father to raise awareness of this problem. Rather than sell up to wealthy businessmen and make a fortune, they would rather protect the environment and the turtles and keep this beach a protected wild-life reserve.

I am making a short video on the problem. I will post a link to it here when I get it done

Related: WWF has a good French article on loggerheads turtles at Çıralı at WWF.