Northern Cyprus

Monitoring and Research

A large part of the expedition work involves monitoring all nesting beaches throughout the whole of the season from mid May until early October. At Alagadi Beach, the main nesting site in Northern Cyprus, both night-time and dawn beach surveys are conducted to assess nesting and hatching activity.

On all other beaches around the island, day-time surveys are used to quantify and qualify levels of marine turtle nesting, hatching and predation.

In addition, academic studies to date have been carried out on a wide range of behavioural and ecological aspects. Techniques utilised have included: stable isotope analysis, molecular biology, satellite telemetry, intra-nest temperature logging, use of time depth records, PIT tagging, necropsy, histological sexing, and contaminant analysis. See publications