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Saturday, July 03, 2004
Bringing the plight of the sea turtle to the public's attention
Green Line releases new documentary on endangered animal
Numbers fell sharply during the war and have only started to recover recently
By Linda Dahdah
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: In an attempt to raise people's awareness about the dangers sea turtles face on Lebanese shores, the local environmental group Green Line screened the first documentary on the subject Friday at UNESCO Palace, called "Sea Turtles: In Danger."
"The main reason for this documentary is primarily to inform Lebanese about the fact that we have sea turtles in Lebanon . When watching the documentary for the first time, many people asked what country we filmed in," said Mohammed al-Sarji, president of the Lebanese Union of Professional Divers and also the director of the film.
Capturing the different phases of a sea turtle's life in Lebanon took a 20-person team two years, or two May to June egg-laying seasons of night shooting on the Zahrani Beach , next to Sidon in South Lebanon .
After many years which saw declining populations, a fact due primarily to the violent use of dynamite by fishermen during the Lebanese civil war, sea turtles have been slowly making their way back to the country's sand beaches.
Their re-emergence has been especially pronounced since the late 1990s, especially after a law banning the hunting, selling and buying of turtles was passed in 1999.
As the documentary sees it, with two different kinds of sea turtles in its waters, the black caretta caretta and the green colonia mydas, Lebanon is home to an international treasure. The claim seems especially valid considering that the second species is considered to be on the brink of extinction by the Mediterranean Turtle Protection Society.
Moreover, Lebanon is rare in the Mediterranean in attracting the amphibious reptiles: "This part of the Mediterranean is warmer, and this is why we can find sea turtles in Lebanon , Syria and Cyprus and not in the Western part, like Southern France ," said Sarji
Reaching the sand, where available, is not always easy considering that concrete has taken over so much of the Lebanese coast.
"Turtles use all the sandy beaches of Lebanon . ... On this 1 kilometer Zahrani beach, we found 40 different nests, with each containing 100 to 120 eggs," said Sarji.
After 50 days, if a dog hasn't passed by and dug them up, the eggs will hatch and the baby turtles will do their best to make it to the water.
Once there, they have to evade fishing nets, boats, scattered dynamiting that is still practiced illegally and pollution.
Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for their favorite food, jellyfish.
Karim al-Jisr, environmental consultant and a member of Green Line, identified five main stakeholders in the fight to help Lebanon 's sea turtles.
First on the list, he said, is the Transport Ministry, the legal owner of the public maritime space that can prevent sand-eroding highway construction along the coast. Second are the municipalities that give permits for all kinds of resorts. After these two entities come the Directorate-General of Urban Planning and the Fishermen's Syndicates.
The final stakeholder is perhaps the most important of all: the Lebanese.
"We already, as citizens, have no free access to the sea. We are at least calling for the sea turtles to have access to the shores," said Jisr.
Green Line will make the documentary available free of charge for educational purposes.