Israeli Ecologists Struggle To Protect Mediterranean?s Turtles

NAHARIYA, ISRAEL - AUGUST 24: About two months after a nest of loggerhead turtle eggs was transplanted to a protected hatchery, and after three nights of natural hatchings, Israeli ecologist Gil Ben Ezra examines an unfertilized egg after seven surviving hatchlings that remained trapped in the 40cm deep nest and which would otherwise have died were dug out to ensure them a safe passage to the Mediterranean Sea at first light on Betzet beach August 24, 2006 near the northern Israel town of Nahariya. From transplanting turtle nests during the nesting season to protected beaches, through the rescue and treatment of wounded turtles brought in by fishermen or washed up on Israel's shores, to the development of a long-range breeding program for the threatened Green turtles, the volunteers and staff of the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority are doing their best to protect the creatures. The numbers have dwindled in the Mediterranean to an estimated 350 nesting female Green turtles and about 2500 nesting female Loggerheads. Far removed from man-made obstacles and protected from their natural predators such as crabs, foxes and birds, the hatchlings make their race to the sea with the hope that more than 20 years later they will return to the same beach to ensure the species survival. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)