THE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE NESTING STATUS OF THE GREEN TURTLE CHELONIA MYDAS ON YENIYURT BEACH (HATAY) IN THE NORTHEASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, TURKEY

Abstract

A new nesting site that is not previously designated as a nesting beach was investigated for the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting. The Yeniyurt Beach is bordered by BOTAŞ Port to the south and Secil Holiday Houses to the north. The small water channel in Yeniyurt Public Beach is taken to the reference point of which can be divided as the north, 2600 m long, and the south, 1400 m long. The beach was monitored between 15 June and 15 September in 2019. A total of 182 green turtle emergences occurred, and 85 (46.7%) of them were recorded as nests. The nest density was found as 21.2 clutches yr-1. The temporal distribution of the nests was found to be 52.9%, 45.8% and 1.3% in June, July and August, respectively. Besides, the average nest depth and incubation duration was 71.9cm ±8.2 (n=70) and 52.6 days ±4.4 (n=70), respectively. A total of 7362 eggs were laid in these nests and 6274 (85.2%) of them hatched. The average clutch size and number of empty eggshells were found to be 105.2 ±30.1 (40-199) and 89.6 ±26.4 (35-154), respectively. The average number of hatchlings reaching the sea was 62.8 ±20.8 (70.1%). Yeniyurt beach can be considered as a moderate dense beach (20−99 clutches yr-1; ≥6.5 clutches km-1 yr-1) for green turtle nesting based on previous studies in the Mediterranean.