The National Center for Wildlife, in cooperation with the National Center for Waste Management, the Municipality of Yanbu Governorate and the Municipality of Amlaj Governorate, carried out a clean-up campaign to clean the beaches of nesting sea turtles in a number of important sites on the coasts of the Red Sea, namely Ras Baridi of Yanbu Governorate, and Ras al-Shabaan and Sharm al-Hassi of Amlaj governorate. 35 tons of different wastes were removed over three days.
The clean-up campaign, which extended as far as 9 km in the targeted sites, aims to rehabilitate the important beaches for nesting of endangered sea turtles, with the aim of making the nesting seasons successful within the program for the conservation of sea turtles and the safety of marine ecosystems carried out by the National Center for Wildlife.
It is worth mentioning that the regions of Ras Braidi, Sharm al-Hassi and Ras al-Shabaan are among the twenty globally important areas for turtle nesting and the first most important site amongst the region's countries bordering the Red Sea.
The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) is one of the endangered creatures in these areas, as the green turtle nesting season begins in these areas from August and reaches its peak between 20th of August – 20th of September each year. The season continues until the end of October, during which the female turtles lays between 60-160 eggs at one time, buries them in a hole, returns to the water, and repeats this process 3-6 times per season.
