Volunteers usher freshly hatched turtles into the sea, Sour, South Lebanon, Sept. 15, 2023. (Credit: Sally Abou AlJoud/L’Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A remarkable scene unfolds at dawn amid the distant rumble of shelling: endangered sea turtles, oblivious to human conflicts, instinctively emerge to lay their eggs on the Mansouri beach in Sour, southern Lebanon, less than 20 kilometers from the border with Israel.
Despite the ongoing cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah disrupting and destroying many aspects of daily life, the nesting season for these turtles continues uninterrupted. Amid all the adversities, volunteers and scientists are ensuring the safety of the new hatchlings as they make the treacherous journey from their nests across the sand and into the Mediterranean.
Lebanon's southern coastline, home to the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve and the Mansouri beach, is a vital nesting ground for sea turtles. Since mid-May 2024, conservationists such as Fadia Joumaa and her small team of four have been standing guard over the turtles, overseeing the egg-laying process and protecting the baby turtles once they've hatched.
The number of sea turtle nests has increased this season, according to Ali Badreddine, director of the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve and marine biologist. Ironically, the conflict has created unexpected opportunities for the turtles. With fewer beachgoers, there has been less human interference, allowing more nests to be protected, Joumaa notes. Her team managed to safeguard 51 nests on Sour's secluded Mansouri beach alone.
“The season compared to last year and previous years is one of the best,” she says, adding that over 2,000 baby turtles have made their way into the sea from the Mansouri reserve this year.
Turning the tide
The Mansouri Beach turtle project has saved, on average, around 30 sea turtle nests each summer, occasionally reaching 40 nests. Each individual nest contains between 45 to 110 eggs.
Summer 2006, during the Israel-Lebanon war, was also an exceptional season for turtles. Fewer beachgoers and less human activity in Mansouri allowed for around 80 sea turtle nests to thrive that year.
A group of children gather around and listens to sea turtle expert Fadia Joumaa as she lays out some information about Lebanon’s sea turtles, ahead of their release on Mansouri beach, 2024. (Courtesy of Fadia Joumaa)
This year, the conflict in the south has forced many people to flee, but Joumaa remains. “We had concerns at the beginning of the season that we would not be able to reach the beach,” Joumaa tells L’Orient Today. “The targeting has been random at times, with a few strikes happening just a few kilometers away from the reserve.”
“The war did not directly affect the turtles, but rather our work as a team, as we were not always able to reach the beach early or stay long during the night,” she adds.
Turtle conservation efforts
The Mansouri turtle project was revived last summer after a two-year hiatus, but the team was only able to save seven turtle nests — six loggerhead turtle nests and one green turtle nest.
They are the two most prominent sea turtle species found along Lebanon's shores. The green turtle is considered endangered while the loggerhead is categorized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Conservationist Fadia Joumaa and her team of four on Mansouri Beach, 2024. (Courtesy of Fadia Joumaa)
To safeguard the eggs from hungry predators (like foxes, dogs and birds) and acts of sabotage by beachgoers, iron cages are placed over each nest. Some eggs are taken out of their sand nests and carefully transferred to artificial nests constructed in buckets. The team ensures the eggs are nestled in the same sand they were laid in to maintain the right temperature for survival.
The hatching process can take anywhere from 45 to 60 days. After the turtles hatch, they are released on the shore, with volunteers guiding and protecting them as they crawl across the beach, until they reach the water.
Joumaa, who has been part of this project since 2016, took special training courses at the Sea Turtles Rescue Center in Italy to gain expertise that she could then apply for the Mansouri beach project.
Israeli strikes kept visitors away
While the turtles may be experiencing a season of relief from harmful human interference, the war has impacted Joumaa's outreach efforts. In previous years, awareness campaigns and turtle release events drew visitors from across Lebanon.
“It affected the release, awareness, and participation campaigns that we were carrying out as this summer,” she recalls. “Many did not come due to fear of the events [of the war].” These release campaigns are important for fostering awareness of and sensitivity toward these endangered creatures, Joumaa explains. Without these various opportunities for introducing people to the lives of Lebanon's turtles, the process of laying, hatching, and returning to the sea will remain an exceedingly dangerous one.
People wait to watch the release of sea turtle hatchlings into the sea on Mansouri beach in South Lebanon, Sept. 15, 2023. (Credit: Sally Abou AlJoud/L’Orient Today)
“We do not have any government assistance or support,” says Joumaa, whose initiative received a small funding from the Sour Municipality through the Blue Tyre Project, an initiative started by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and led by Tricase municipality in south-east Italy.
Joumaa's work is an extension of what Mona Khalil, the previous protector of the beach and its turtles, had done for 21 years before retiring three years ago.