Rescuing injured sea turtles is not new to Israel. In fact, there has been a temporary turtle rescue center in collaboration with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) for 27 years. Now a new National Sea Turtle Rescue Center has opened its doors.
It all began with one rescue and the dream to rehabilitate an injured turtle found by university student Yaniv Levy, who was majoring in marine biology, reported The Times of Israel. He named the loggerhead turtle Mazel, which means luck in Hebrew, and he set out to rehabilitate her injured limb.
Levy is the director of the new center that is located in the Alexander Stream National Park close to where he found Mazel all those years ago. It is also under the auspices of the INPA.
Sea Turtles are Endangered
In the past year, 176 injured loggerhead and green turtles were brought to the center with 67 percent of them entangled with plastic. Eighty-five of the turtles were able to be returned to sea.
Rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles is vitally important, according to All Israel News, because populations are declining due to habitat loss, fishing, and pollution. Conservation efforts are moving beyond just rescue work to engaging the public with these efforts.
The new center was designed not just for rehab but also for public educational engagement and it also houses an impressive breeding program.
Raya Shourky, INPA director, told All Israel News, “I am very excited to present to the public a project that we have worked on for years with great care and sensitivity. The center is a unique site unlike any other in Israel, and visitors will be able to see an active hospital and immerse themselves in the special and vital world of sea turtle rescue.”
The center contains a reception area, an emergency and intensive care unit, an operating room, X-ray room, and many outdoor tubs where the turtle patients can recover, reported The Times of Israel. Visitors to the center will be able to view the emergency reception area, the outdoor tubs, and then the breeding pools which can be seen from a bridge or underwater window.
The Breeding Program
The breeding program is an important part of the new turtle center. Besides protecting nests on the coast, Levy began with 22 hatchlings in 2002. Injured turtles that cannot survive in the sea have also been added to the breeding program.
One female turtle whose injured back flippers never fully recovered, Levy told The Times of Israel needed help in laying eggs. “She dug a pit for her body but didn’t have the strength in her hind flippers to dig the egg chamber,” he said. “We discovered that we could creep in behind her to dig the chamber, and then she laid her eggs.”
The breeding program produced 1,300 eggs and the viable ones were released along with around 28,000 hatchlings that were born along the Mediterranean coast and escorted into the water. Only one in a thousand will survive into adulthood.
This is why the new Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab Center is so important to these marine reptiles. Visitors to the center will not be going to an entertainment venue. They will be learning about how Israel is saving sea turtles from becoming extinct and how they can do their part.
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