A nesting season monitored night after night on the southern beaches.
The nesting season begins in June. On some beaches along the Tunisian coast, female loggerhead sea turtles come out of the water at nightfall, dig a nest in the dry sand and lay around a hundred eggs before heading out to sea.
Spot, protect, wait
The teams' work begins there: spotting the tracks in the early morning, locating the nest, marking it and protecting it with a fence against stray dogs and trampling. Then wait — seven to nine weeks, depending on sand temperature.
This temperature also decides the sex of the newborns: warmer sand produces more females. On a warming coastline, nest temperature readings have become as important as egg counts.
Seven to nine weeks after spawning, everything happens in one night: the young must reach the sea alone, and quickly.
The night of emergence
The young emerge together, almost always after sunset, and move towards the lighter horizon. This is why beach lighting is a direct danger: a lit terrace diverts an entire brood inland.
Very few will reach adulthood. Protecting nests doesn't change that number, but it does increase the number of departures — and for a species that only breeds every two to three years, every nest saved counts.
