🐢 Sea Turtles on Israel's Beaches

Every summer, on quiet nights, something special happens on the beaches of Israel. Large sea turtles come out of the Mediterranean Sea, crawl slowly up the sand, and dig a deep hole with their back flippers. In this nest, a mother turtle lays about one hundred eggs, covers them with sand, and returns to the sea. She never sees her babies.

About fifty days later, the baby turtles hatch. They are as small as a cookie. They climb out of the sand at night and run toward the brightest light they can see. In nature, that is the light of the moon and stars on the water. Today, however, the lights of cities and hotels can confuse them, and they crawl the wrong way.

Two kinds of sea turtles nest in Israel: the loggerhead turtle and the green turtle. Both are endangered. Volunteers and workers of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority walk along the beaches, find the nests and protect them. At the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret, injured turtles get treatment and are later returned to the sea.