Dalyan Sea Turtle Foundation

[John Codling]

The inaugural Dalyan Sea Turtle Foundation gala evening was held last night at the Ley Ley restaurant. The guest of honour was Professor Sir David Bellamy who sat alongside June Haimnoff (Kaptan June) at the head table.

As a bit of background Kaptan June was the driving force in the prevention of the building of a hotel on Iztuzu Beach in order to protect the nesting sites of the loggerhead turtles that return there year after year and in doing so protecting the natural beauty of the area.

To use her own words "I shall never forget my first sight of Dalyan Beach: dazzling, magnificent, it stretched away in a flawless white arc, losing itself into the far distance under a summer haze. I wanted to rush to it and embrace it like a lover." Pretty much what most people think when they first see it.

Sir David Bellamy assisted in the blocking of the building and in 1988 the project was stopped.

Anyway back to the gala evening, essentially a fund raising event for the Dalyan Turtle Foundation there was a good turnout with over 100 people in attendance. Just over 2,000tl was raised by the auctioning of some local artists paintings, as soon as I have a figure for the complete amount raised I will post it here.

Sir David Bellamy gave a short speech on the importance of the project and how gradually he has seen small groups around the world fighting back for nature.

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June Haimoff and Sir David Bellamy
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Sir David Bellamy during his speech.

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My wife, Tina, getting a hug from the man himself.

We received the 2009 annual report for the Research Centre and Rehabilitation Centre and it showed that of the 14 turtles that the centre treated last year 3 unfortunately died, 8 were released and 3 are still undergoing treatment.

Of these 5 were injured by propellor cuts, 3 from fishing line cuts, 3 from fishing hook ingestion, 2 from Speedboat crashes and 1 from gunshot wound.

Personally the last one I find astonishing in that how can anyone shoot such a beautiful creature.

[Cassie W]

Thanks for the update John.

I had heard that the Research Centre was going to setup a web page but I have not been able to find any as of yet. Have you heard of any plans?

Cassie

[John Codling]

Sorry I forgot to post it.

Here is the link http://caretta.pamukkale.edu.tr/english.htm