A Russian tourist went swimming in the sea early in the morning and became the victim of a shocking attack by a sea turtle of the Caretta-caretta species in shallow water. The thigh and arm were injured. The incident happened in the resort province of Antalya last week.
The 64-year-old Russian citizen rested on a public beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea, Sozcu reported. A double attack occurred in one of the swims. The woman was swimming on her back when she felt severe pain in her thigh. That was the first attack. Then there was the second – a bite on the left hand.
A rescuer who was on duty on the shore rushed to help the tourist. However, he also fell under the hand – the turtle bit his shoulder. Soon the animal retreated. The injured tourist was helped to get first to the hotel where she stayed, and then to the hospital. Doctors recorded serious hematomas on the thigh and traces of compression of powerful jaws.
“I swam for a while and returned to the shore. When I was 4-5 meters from the beach, I wanted to lie in the water on my back. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my thigh, I guess her jaws were very strong. I did not understand what happened and started to fight back. Then there was a bite on the hand. A rescuer swam to me, but the turtle attacked him too. The rescuer told me to go ashore immediately and stay with the animal. I was so scared that I won’t go into the sea for a long time,” said the Russian woman and thanked the courageous rescuer.
Eyewitnesses who watched the NP on the beach managed to shoot a video of an aggressive turtle. According to them, the animal was in shallow water, just 5-10 meters from the shore – in the bathing area for tourists.
A Russian woman was not the first victim of a turtle attack in a popular resort area. In the last 15 days, 11 vacationers were injured as a result of the attacks. Professor Mehmet Gecoglu, a lecturer at the Aquaculture Faculty of Akdeniz University, said that sometimes there were attacks near the shores of the resort areas of Lara, Belek, and Side, where many turtles of this species were seen. The scientist explained that the encroachment of the coastline with hotels and recreation areas has displaced sea turtles, who need free access to the beach: “But there are people everywhere, living creatures have nowhere to escape. Hence the attacks. We know that attacks tend to happen closer to noon and in shallow water.”
Reference: The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is a species of sea turtle, the only remaining representative of the loggerhead or loggerhead sea turtle genus. An adult individual reaches a length of 95 cm and a weight of 100 to 200 kg. She has no teeth, but her jaw is strong and her palate is very sharp. It feeds mainly on mollusks and crustaceans, as well as fish, jellyfish, and sponges.
Females lay eggs at night, 4-5 times per season, in spring and autumn. In a clutch of 100 to 126 eggs with a leathery shell with a diameter of about 4 cm. The turtle’s hatch after 1-2 months, spend several hours in the nest, and then get out of the sand together and head to the sea.