Loggerhead sea turtle in the context of "Clutch (eggs)"

Dalyan is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Ortaca, Muğla Province, Turkey. Its population is 5,829 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (belde). It is located between Marmaris and Fethiye on the south-west coast of Turkey.

Dalyan achieved international fame in 1987 when developers wanted to build a luxury hotel on the nearby İztuzu Beach, a breeding ground for the endangered loggerhead sea turtle species. The incident created major international storm when David Bellamy championed the cause of conservationists such as June Haimoff, Peter Günther, Nergis Yazgan, Lily Venizelos and Keith Corbett. The development project was temporarily stopped after Prince Philip called for a moratorium and in 1988 the beach and its hinterland were declared a protected area, viz. Köyceğiz-Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area.

Kalamaki (Greek: Καλαμάκι) is the name of a beach resort town on the Greek island of Zakynthos. It is located approximately 3 km northeast of the busy resort of Laganas, although despite the close proximity it maintains a much more relaxed atmosphere than its neighbour. It has experienced rapid growth in recent years, due to the growing influx of tourism with the number of charter flights to the area increasing twentyfold between 1983 and 1993.

It is located on the south of the island, in the Bay of Laganas. The beach at Kalamaki is also a nesting place for the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. As a consequence, the Greek government declared the beach as part of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. The Greek parliament had previously protected the area through the development of legislation in 1986. This led to beachgoing being banned at night, and sports such as water skiing being likewise banned.

The Gulf of Kyparissia (Greek: Κυπαρισσιακός Κόλπος, Kyparissiakos Kolpos) is a long, curving indentation along the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, Greece. It lies between Cape Katakolo at the north end and Cape Konello (Akra Kounellos) to the south. Near the northern extreme is the city of Pyrgos, with the town of Zacharo near the center and the town of Kyparissia lying toward the southern end. Flowing into the gulf are the Alpheios and Neda rivers. Its southern part is also one of the main breeding grounds of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle.

During the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century, this body was known as the Gulf of Arcadia.

Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and olive ridley. 5 of the seven species are listed as threatened with extinction globally on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the remaining two are not considered to be threatened with extinction. One of which, the flatback turtle, is found only in the waters of Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.

Sea turtles can be categorized as hard-shelled (cheloniid) or leathery-shelled (dermochelyid). The only dermochelyid species of sea turtle is the leatherback.

İztuzu Beach is a 4.5 km long beach near Dalyan, in the Ortaca district of the Province of Muğla in southwestern Turkey. The beach is a narrow spit of land, which forms a natural barrier between the fresh water delta of the Dalyan river and the Mediterranean. It is one of the main breeding grounds for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Mediterranean and is therefore often referred to as Turtle Beach. The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is on the IUCN Red list of endangered animals. For this reason the beach has had a protected status since 1988 and is part of the Köyceğiz-Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area.

The greatest threat to the survival of the loggerhead sea turtle is on these sandy beaches where its life begins. This has triggered an international conservation effort that began in the 1990s. The effort to protect loggerhead sea turtle eggs and to assure a safe breeding ground for this endangered species has made international headlines. This issue is one of the most critical items on Turkey's environmental agenda.

The National Marine Park of Zakynthos (Greek: Εθνικό Θαλάσσιο Πάρκο Ζακύνθου) founded in 1999, is a national park located in Laganas bay, in Zakynthos island, Greece. The park, part of the Natura 2000 ecological network, covers an area of 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) andis the habitat of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). It is the first national park established for the protection of sea turtles in the Mediterranean.

Sea turtle migration is the long-distance movement of sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), comprising the swimming of adults to their breeding beaches, and also the offshore migration of hatchings. Sea turtle hatchings emerge from underground nests and crawl across the beach towards the sea. They then head offshore to the open sea. The feeding and nesting sites of adult sea turtles may be far apart, requiring some to migrate hundreds or even thousands of kilometres.

Several patterns of adult migration have been identified. Some green sea turtles shuttle between nesting sites and coastal foraging areas. The loggerhead sea turtle uses a series of foraging sites. Others such as the leatherback sea turtle and olive ridley sea turtle do not keep to one coastal foraging site, but forage in different areas in the open sea. Although the leatherbacks seem to forage randomly, drifting passively with the currents, they still return to specific sites to breed. The ability of adult sea turtles to travel to precise locations has led biologists to wonder about their navigational mechanisms. Some have suggested that turtles might use the Earth's magnetic field to fix their position. There is evidence for this ability in juvenile green sea turtles.

Cheloniidae is a family of typically large marine turtles that are characterised by their common traits such as having a flat streamlined wide and rounded shell and almost paddle-like flippers for their forelimbs. They are the only sea turtles to have stronger front limbs than back limbs. The six species that make up this family are the green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, olive ridley sea turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, flatback sea turtle and the Kemp's ridley sea turtle.