1,110 loggerhead hatchlings reached the sea off Aydın's beaches
Volunteers and a university biologist watched 22 nests on beaches at Kuşadası, Didim, and Urla. One waterlogged nest was moved, and 18 of those hatchlings still made the water.
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The reporting lives at Yeni Asır. Our summary is checked against it, and we link it on every story.
Along the Aydın coast, 1,110 loggerhead hatchlings from 22 nests reached the sea this season, including beaches that sit outside Turkey's officially protected nesting shores. Yeni Asır reported on October 30, 2026, that 21 of the nests were at Kuşadası and Didim and one was at Urla Zeytineli, near İzmir. The paper said the nest at İlkevler in Kuşadası was among the last in the country to finish hatching this year.
That nest had been laid so close to the water that more than half the eggs sat in soaked, muddy sand. After talking with Oğuz Türkozan, a biologist at Adnan Menderes University who advises the local group EKODOSD, volunteers moved the eggs into a prepared nest of the same shape, keeping each egg's orientation. Bahattin Sürücü, who chairs EKODOSD, said the female had nested late and the incubation ran long, and that 18 hatchlings from the moved nest still made the water.
He said the watch was shared by the Aydın branch of the nature protection directorate, Türkozan, EKODOSD, the Kuşadası and Didim municipalities, and people who live by the nests. The 1,110 are the hatchlings from these 22 nests. They are not a national total.
For the classroom
Loggerhead hatchlings crawl from the sand to the sea. Yeni Asır reported on October 30, 2026, that 1,110 hatchlings from 22 nests reached the water on beaches in western Turkey that are not the official protected nesting shores. Most nests were at Kuşadası and Didim. One was near İzmir. At İlkevler beach, a nest sat so close to the sea that the eggs were in wet sand. People moved the eggs into a safer nest, keeping each egg facing the same way. Eighteen hatchlings from that nest still reached the water. The number is these 22 nests.
- Why did people move one nest, and how did they move the eggs?
- What do hatchlings do as soon as they leave the sand?
- Why should lights stay low on a beach where turtles nest?
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Kuşadası, TurkeySea turtlesVolunteersWildlife conservationGood news on October 30
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