Geocache Description:
5 July 2025, 06:00 - 7:00 Beach cleaning
7:00-10:00 Searching for sea turtle nests
We will meet at the fortress beach to collect trash and clean up the beach, with explanations about the sea turtle nest search activity along the beach afterwards.
The cleaning event in addition to the attempt to locate traces of a sea turtle that went ashore to lay its eggs.
The event will begin at the "Fortress" beach in Atlit at 6:00 in the morning. In order for a trace of sea turtle to be found ashore, it is necessary to start at this time.
We will walk along the beach 1.5 km to the turtle farm in front of Moshav Megadim, and back (total 3 km).
If we find traces of a sea turtle, we will be called to a certified nature inspector from the Nature and Parks Authority who will take out the eggs and transfer them to a farm that we will also reach.
I do not know how long the event will last exactly, it also depends on whether a nest is found or not and the amount of garbage found (hopefully not found).
Near the turtle farm there is my cache
Sea turtle farms, Megadim Traditional Geocache
GC6PMQY
Recommended equipment:
I'll bring garbage bags
Everyone brings their own: water, a hat, sunscreen, food
You can walk on the beach barefoot or in sandals or shoes.
Sea turtle information:
Brown sea turtles (CARETTA) and green sea turtles (CHELONIA MYDAS) reach the Israeli coast to lay their eggs in nests on the beach. Two kinds of turtles are threatened with extinction in the Mediterranean and protected by law
Spawning season of sea turtles begins in May and lasts until August. During the spawning season it is very important to keep the rules of conduct to protect the sea turtles that come ashore, the nests (and the eggs inside them) and of course, the little turtles hatch and eventually make their way to the sea.
During spawning season, which begins in May and lasts until the end of August, go early in the morning inspectors NPA tours in all the Mediterranean coast, north of Gaza to Rosh Hanikra, to locate nests of sea turtles from the night before. With finding the nest, the eggs will be transferred as soon as discovered hatchery - a safe place where they can develop without fear, hatch, and leave for a new life.
This process is called "Copy nests", and is performed since most of the country's coast are no longer fit to serve as a home worthy of the name. Bathing, urban development, SUVs and narrowing of the shoreline are just some of the reasons.
After about 60 days, the turtles hatch from the nest. The nest on the farm is surrounded by a net so that the hatched turtles will not spread everywhere. Volunteers called "shamtazim" inspect the nests and if turtles hatch they take them 20 meters from the shoreline "to the runway".
The route is designed to allow them to crawl on the beach as in a natural hatch to get stronger.
It is believed that this is how the females return to the shore where they hatched, a relatively protected shore on the shoreline of Israel.
Since the beginning of the breeding farm activities, mid-80s, came into the world, tens of thousands of sea turtles.
Despite their low chances of survival, these turtles are vital reinforcements dwindling population of sea turtles in the Mediterranean. Some even reach sexual maturity and will return in a few years the Israeli coast as adults to complete their life cycle.
האירוע יתחיל בחוף "המבצר" בעתלית בשעה 6:00 בבוקר. כדי שאולי נמצא עקבות עליית צב ים לחוף, צריך להתחיל בשעה זו.
נלך לאורך החוף 1.5 ק"מ עד חוות הצבים מול מושב מגדים, וחזרה (סה"ב 3 ק"מ).
אם נמצא עקבות צב ים, נקרא לפקח טבע מוסמך של רשות הטבע והגנים שיוציא את הביצים ויעביר אותם לחווה שאנחנו גם נגיע אליה.
אני לא יודע כמה זמן ימשך האירוע במדויק, זה תלוי גם אם נמצא קן או לא ובכמות הזבל שנמצא (בתקווה שלא נמצא).
ציוד מומלץ:
אני אביא שקיות זבל
כל אחד מביא לעצמו: מים, כובע, קרם הגנה, אוכל
ניתן ללכת על החוף יחפים או סנדלים או נעלים.
