A turtle tracked from North Cyprus has made an epic journey arriving on the Costa del Sol in Spain.
The turtle who is named Nehir (River), was tracked via satellite making a journey somewhere between 3,000-5,000 kilometres, by the North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Turtles (SPOT)
Nehir’s journey is believed to the longest in distance on record.
Every year, endangered green and loggerhead turtles migrate thousands of kilometres to nest on the beaches of North Cyprus.
In the late 1980s, a local man named Kutlay Keço realised the need to protect a significant nesting population through coming years of development. So, jointly with Annette Broderick and Brendan Godley, then studying at Glasgow University, Keço founded the Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT).
Annette and Brendan undertook their undergraduate, Masters and Doctorate research, they supported the work carried out in North Cyprus through their academic careers and subsequently, more than 50 peer-reviewed articles have been published on marine turtle conservation in North Cyprus.
This research has attracted the attention of major international press agencies such as BBC and New York Times. The Centre for Ecology and Conservation at University of Exeter where Annette and Brendan are now professors, is a world leading faculty in Ecology.
Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT) on Facebook
