(Photo By: Omri Omessi/INPA)
By: Naama Barak - Aug 17, 2021
Some 20 tiny loggerhead turtles recently made history when they became the first of their endangered species to be documented hatching on the beach in the southern Israeli city of Eilat before quickly making their way into the Red Sea.
Experts are left wondering why their mother decided to lay her eggs there.
“Loggerhead turtles are a species that hasn’t been seen here in Eilat. There was one that was seen a couple of years ago, a very young turtle that we couldn’t understand where he came from,” explains Omri Omessi, a ranger in the marine unit of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
“We know that they can be found in the Indian Ocean, and we’re an extension of the Indian Ocean, so in terms of the species it’s not that it doesn’t make sense that it would reach here,” he explains.
However, research shows that turtles return to the beaches on which they hatched.
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