The Sea Turtle Rescue Centre of Dekamer in Dalyan (Turkey) organized the 2nd meeting programmed within the “Marine Turtle Vet Improvement” project, funded by the “Leonardo da Vinci Partnerships” action of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

During this meeting veterinarians and biologists from the partner organizations, as well as from other Turkish rescue centres and Universities, compared and discussed complicated clinical cases presented to them during their work, especially on traumatic injuries, extremely common in that area. Ideas were also put in common to aid regional and national environmental agencies to establish an effective stranding network for turtles in the country. At night, attendants had the opportunity to go to the beach to see the nesting of loggerhead turtles and participate in the measuring and tagging of animals.

As part of the collaboration established between partners of this project, a small pilot study was carried out during the meeting to try the effectiveness of the side-imaging sonar in the identification of sea turtles under the water. This technology had already been successfully used in Costa Rica for the detection and study of manatee (see project). The sonar proved to be very effective detecting sea turtles under the water, which opens interesting opportunities for the study and population estimates of these animals in semi-confined coastal areas, such as deltas or bays.