Book Fauna Palaestina 4 Year 2014 By Prof Dr Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf von Jaffa ISBN 978-9950-383-77-7

exotic predators have also taken a toll on loggerhead populations.
Efforts to restore their numbers will require international
cooperation, since the turtles roam vast areas of ocean and critical
nesting beaches are scattered across several countries (Wikipedia,
Khalaf 2013).
Among sea turtle species, the loggerhead (Caretta caretta Linnaeus,
1758) is the most commonly found on the shores of Palestine. The
main nesting grounds for the Mediterranean population of this
species are located along the shores of Greece, Cyprus and Turkey
(I.C.S.E.M. Report 1986). Until quite recently, hundreds of nests
were found each year along the Mediterranean coast of Palestine.
In the 1950's, some 200 nests with a density of about 15 nests per
km were recorded on 15 km of typical beach in the northern
region of Palestine (Sella 1982). The picture has changed,
however, during the last few decades. The latest reports by the
Israeli Nature Reserves Authority (Soffer 1988, Kuler 1990), and
the research results of Silberstein and Dmi'el (1991) show that the
abundance and density of nesting by this species has abruptly
decreased. Along some 55 km of coastline, which includes the
surveyed area mentioned in Sella's report, only 10 nests were
found in 1984, 14 in 1985, 16 in 1986, 16 in 1987, and 11 and 13
nests in the years 1988 and 1989, respectively. Personal Reports
also revealed a similar situation on other Mediterranean beaches
in Palestine (Silberstein and Dmi'el 1991).
In the framework of attempts to recover the loggerhead sea turtle
in Palestine, several aspects of its reproduction were investigated,
with an emphasis on the physical conditions prevailing in the
nests. During the 1986-1989 nesting seasons (mid-May through
July), Silberstein and Dmi'el (1991) surveyed repeatedly, in
collaboration with the rangers of the Nature Reserves Authority,
35 km of beach along the northern Mediterranean coast of
Palestine. A total of 34 loggerhead nests were found in this area
(16 nests were found in 1986, 10 in 1987, 4 in 1988, 4 in 1989). The
earliest clutch was laid on 21 May, the latest on 27 July. Most of
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