Baby loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) made their way from their sandy nests in South Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, their flippers seemingly too large for their tiny bodies. Videos circulating on social media show these vulnerable creatures being carefully guided by a group of dedicated people to ensure they reach the water safely.
Between mid-June and mid-September, such scenes regularly occurred at Al-Mansouri Beach, south of the city of Tyre, even as war loomed audibly in the background. The people, part of a volunteer group that has been tending the beach and the turtle nests there for two decades, continued their work this nesting season undeterred by the violence around them.
A series of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Shia party in Lebanon, and Israel have spiraled since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023. In South Lebanon, more than 600 people had been killed, including at least 147 civilians, as of Sept. 20, and more than 111,000 had been displaced from their homes, according to the latest figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Numbers have risen sharply since the recent escalation in which Israel detonated pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah militants and struck hundreds of targets, killing more than 500 additional people across the country including many civilians as of Sept. 23, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
In northern Israel, conflict with Hezbollah has killed dozens and displaced tens of thousands, according to Al Jazeera.
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While the war hasn’t directly affected the turtles, it has disrupted our work. Despite the challenges, we continue to access the beach daily, both morning and evening, from various areas to ensure the turtles and the beach are protected.
Fadia Jomaa, activist, Al-Mansouri Beach volunteers
As the violence descended upon South Lebanon, accompanied by the deafening roar of Israeli jets breaking the sound barrier, the volunteer team began to worry about the impact on Al-Mansouri Beach and the turtle nests there.
“While the war hasn’t directly affected the turtles, it has disrupted our work,” Fadia Jomaa, a journalist and environmental activist who has been leading the Al-Mansouri Beach volunteers since 2016, told Mongabay in a phone interview during the nesting season in August, before the recent escalation in violence. “We can’t always reach the beach early or stay for long periods, particularly during night shifts.”
Every morning at 5 a.m., Fadia and other caretakers monitored the turtles’ movements on the beach. “Despite the challenges, we continue to access the beach daily, both morning and evening, from various areas to ensure the turtles and the beach are protected,” Jomaa said in August, noting that this commitment persisted despite the sonic booms and the bombardments and fighting that were occurring daily on the outskirts of Al-Mansouri.
The team placed iron cages over the nests to safeguard the eggs from predators like dogs and foxes and potential vandalism by beachgoers.
“It’s well known that only one in a thousand baby turtles will survive adulthood and return to the same beach to lay eggs. This underscores the critical importance of protecting these beaches from encroachment and development, as they are vital habitats for creatures that will one day return,” Jomaa said.
In 2019, monitoring of marine turtles along the Lebanese coast identified Al-Mansouri Beach as one of five key nesting sites in Lebanon. That year, 77 nests were recorded in all of Lebanon, with the majority — 55 nests — in southern Lebanon. Loggerheads occupied 74 of the nests.
“Unfortunately, numerous threats like urbanisation, human activities and pollution persist,” Rami Khashab, a biologist and consultant specialising in the conservation of reptiles and sea turtles in Lebanon who is originally from Al-Mansouri village, told Mongabay.
A 2006 study also highlighted a “lack of awareness about sea turtles” but noted that people exploiting turtles and their eggs “does not appear to present a major problem.”
This year, Jomaa and her team began monitoring the beach in May. “We managed to protect, conceal and monitor 51 nests,” she said. By the end of the nesting season in mid-September, 2,500 baby turtles had made safe passage to the sea.
War or no war, sea turtles instinctively return to the beach to lay their eggs. For Jomaa and Khashab, there is a silver lining amid the darkness. Just as during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, fewer people have been visiting the beach this year, leading to an increase in the number of nests observed: This year, they counted 10 more than in previous years.
For Jomaa, protecting nature is political. “We risk our lives daily to protect nature and our homeland,” she said. “I see it as a form of resistance against the war.”
On Monday, Sept. 23, Jomaa told Mongabay she had to flee her home in Tyre after surviving several Israeli air strikes. She found shelter farther north in Lebanon.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
