Lebanon's green turtles threatened by new resort
The Orange House Project, an environmental NGO, has been trying to ensure that turtles reach the sea after their eggs are hatched, but its job gets more difficult every year.
AL-MANSOURI, Lebanon — Waves crashed against the shore as over one hundred turtle hatchlings raced down the hill of the sandy beach toward the ocean where they will spend nearly their entire lives.
The 165 loggerhead and green turtles that the Lebanese organization Orange House Project released was their largest in the 19 years that they have been operating at al-Mansouri beach, which is located nearly 10 miles south from the southern city of Tyre. However, despite this being the largest release to date, the number of nests has significantly decreased over the past few years following the construction of the Palagio Beach Resort nearby.
Mona Khalil, founder and head of Orange House Project, told Al-Monitor that prior to the resort's construction, there was an average of 50 nests per season, but since the construction began five years ago, the number of nests has been steadily decreasing with the biggest impact seen last year and this year.
“The year before I only got 20 nests because they [the resort] opened in August, not at the beginning of the season,” Khalil,a dinamic septuagenerian,said. “This year I only got 13 because they opened at the beginning of the season. Most of the turtles came and then they ran away [back to the ocean] from the white lights [of the resort]. The majority did not even think about coming to the beach. Most of them went, of course, to the safest place here — not Lebanon, nowhere in Lebanon. They went to Israel.”
