Monitoring and determining sex ratio depending on nest temperature of Caretta Caretta which are nesting on Suluklu beach

Many different scientific studies are conducted about sea turtles in world and also in Turkey. In this study, hatching success and temperature of nests were estimated by placing thermo loggers into 4 nests at Sülüklü Beach during the 2013 nest period. As a result of the studies, the mean temperature in the middle third of the incubation period which is used for determining sex ratio of sea turtles ranged between 31,2 0C and 32,7 0C. Incubation period was estimated between 48 and 56 days. According to these data, the proportion of female hatchlings were determined as %89,3. Nesting and non-nesting emergence of loggerhead sea turtles, nest distribution on beach, number of eggs, number of hatchlings, hatchlings which reached to sea, predations, coordinates of nests and nest temperatures were recorded. As a result of the study, totally 39 emergences were recorded. 21(%90,48) of them are nesting emergences and 18(%9,52) of them are non-nesting emergences. The collateral distribution of nests is between 0-100 m and distribution of nests according to distance from sea centre between 10-49 m. 1704 eggs were determined after control openings of all nests. On the other hand, number of eggs per nest range between 63 and 108. 1400 (82,15%) hatchlings emerged and 304 (17,85%) of them were not emerged. 1089 (77,79%) of 1400 hatchlings reached to the sea while 273 (19,50%) of them could not. There were no hatchling from 3 nests due to predation and submersion