Introductions.

I arrived in Turkey at the centre with the sun shining and with my bags weighing me down. After a quick tour I was introduced to the team, a group of diverse people from all over Europe, but the real introductions where soon to follow. Our resident turtles that are at the centre for injuries and illness.
There are seven turtles at the centre at the moment, including Mr no name who arrived today.

Let me introduce to you, the lovely ladies:

Aysegul
Aysegul is our oldest turtle here, she is 70-75 years old, and also our biggest turtle. When she came her she was very underweight and weak, and was only half the weight she should be. (Sea turtles should be between 70-200kg, but Aysegul was only 35kg!)
In the past week she has started eating fish, and today she was weighed at 43kg, she also caught her first crab which is a very good sign that she can still hunt for her food when she is released.

Simge
The biter! She will always come up to your fingers to try and bite them off!

This is Simge's second time here at the centre, the first time she was here she had a fishing line around her flipper and had to have it removed, so now she only has 3. Now she is back again for a fungal infection on her skin from pollution and bacteria in the sea infecting some cuts on her head and flippers.
It is a slow process to clean up, but eventually she will be released...again.


Fethiye 
Fethiye is our little green turtle, from Fethiye harbour. She is our resident vegetarian and every day one of the team goes out to sea and dives down to get her some fresh seagrass to eat. She is 15 years old and has a bubble stuck under her shell which stops her from diving and swimming well. Unfortunately to fix this she needs to have a big operation which needs professional care, so we are waiting to see what happens with her. But for now, she is ours to care for and love lots!


And now for the boys:


Ferhat 

Ferhat has only been with us a short time, but he is our sickest turtle. He has an infection in the lungs, almost a sort of pneumonia for turtles. He is very weak and every day he is given antibiotics and calcium. He also has a damaged jaw, and must be fed through a tube.
Due to his lack of strength Ferhat is kept in shallow water that allows him to breathe without swimming and is covered with a damp towel to keep him cool. Only time will tell if this turtle survives.


Hakan 
 Hakan is our biggest male, he is 40 years old and came to the centre with a hook and fishing line through his tongue. This hook has caused the tongue to split and now he has a  tongue like a snake. Hakan is fully healed now and ready to be released, before he is released he will have a GPS satelitte tracker added to him to see what behaviour he shows when he is back in the wild.

Nuri 

Nuri is another of our turtles with 3 flippers, and it is also his second time here. This time for a propellor injury on his shell. Sea turtles can still swim and dive no problem without one of their flippers, but when you observe them, they have a phantom flipper and still move as though it was there. 

Nuri is fully healed now and will join Hakan to be released with the GPS tracker.


 Mr No Name (for now) 

Finally, our newest addition is a male turtle around 35 years old that came in today with some big injuries from a propellor hitting his shell and back flippers. He is very active at the moment, but is not using his back flippers atall, suggesting that they are hurting him. He will remain at the centre for at least 4-6 months.






As for the rest of life here on Iztuzu beach, the weather is HOT and SUNNY, the sea is lush and the food is fresh and tasty.

Total number of loggerhead nests : 83
Total number of Nile Turtle nests:     7
Total number of mosquito bites:      11 and counting!

Next time: What it's like on beach patrol and nesting.