SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Endangered sea turtles are hatching on the coast of Lebanon and making their way to the Mediterranean. The turtles have essentially remained unchanged for a hundred million years. Their habitat has not. Coastal development, fishing nets and plastic trash have brought them to the edge of extinction. NPR's Jane Arraf has the story of a group of volunteers who are braving the fighting near Lebanon's border and trying to give the turtles a chance at survival.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELING)
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Fadia Joumaa and her team are digging into the sand. They stop before they reach the pingpong-ball-sized eggs buried about 3 feet down. Left to themselves, these endangered green sea turtles would hatch and make their way at nightfall down to the water. But night is when the foxes and dogs come down and eat any eggs they find. The volunteers carefully place the newly hatched turtles on the sand.
FADIA JOUMAA: Yes.
ARRAF: He's hatching.
JOUMAA: Yes.
ARRAF: He's actually coming out of his little shell, and you can see him struggling his tiny, little flippers. And he's halfway out now. These little creatures have less than 1 in 1,000 chance of growing to adulthood. But gosh, they're determined.
JOUMAA: Yeah.
ARRAF: Sea turtles have roughly the same lifespan as humans. They mature at about 20 years old and can live up to 100 years. But on this first day of their lives, there are many dangers.
JOUMAA: (Through interpreter) Of course, the fish eat them. The birds wait for them on the water's surface. After they reach the water, we can't do anything for them.
ARRAF: Adult females will travel back hundreds of miles to lay eggs on the same beach where they were born.
JOUMAA: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: When we come back to the same beach the next day, the team removes iron grates they've put on nests to keep out predators. Joumaa's daughter, Miriam Bazzi, places the turtles in a bucket to release. I ask her why she does this.
MIRIAM BAZZI: I found my joy 'cause we're protecting such a beautiful creature.
ARRAF: A beautiful creature. It's true.
There are far fewer volunteers this year because of fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border, just a few miles away, that's been raging since the start of the Gaza war. The day before, an airstrike not far away killed two young Lebanese civilians, according to U.N. peacekeepers.
JOUMAA: (Through interpreter) If we had more volunteers, it would be much better. But today, we are in a war, and not everyone is OK with the danger. In previous years, it might have been OK, but now we are also living in very difficult economic conditions.
ARRAF: Joumaa says along with funding, they need more training. She's been to courses in Italy but learned most of what she knows from Mona Khalil, a Lebanese conservationist who protected the turtles for decades. Now in her '70s, she no longer does.
As the sun sets, Joumaa says they could be a target on this deserted beach. They head down to the public beach, where families have come to watch.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: And then the volunteers take the turtles out of the bucket one by one and set them down. Even before they reach the ground, their tiny flippers are flapping like windmills.
Oh, my gosh. It's like watching a race. Some of them are on their backs. Oh, one of them's rolling down the sand dune. And then the ones who have actually gotten there, the big waves are coming in, and they're taking them away.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES)
ARRAF: They'll have to swim out more than a mile to get to the seagrass they eat. A lot of them are accidentally caught in fishing nets and drown. Other sea turtle species die when they eat plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish. Joumaa's small team has released about 2,000 sea turtles this season. I asked her why with such slim odds of surviving - 1 in 1,000 - she works so hard at it.
JOUMAA: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: "I used to be very sad about this," she says. "But then I understood this is the cycle of life. God created a balance."
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVE CRASHING)
ARRAF: "If we can save one or two of these unique creatures every year," she says, "it's worth it." Jane Arraf on Mansouri Beach, Lebanon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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