Caretta Caretta: The Loggerhead Sea Turtles off Side
The dolphins get the island's name, but the sea off Side has a second famous resident. This is what it is, why it is protected, and what to do if one comes up beside you.
Short answer
Caretta caretta is the loggerhead sea turtle — an air-breathing sea reptile, protected in Türkiye, whose Mediterranean nesting coasts include the Turkish shore. Loggerheads live in the waters the Side dolphin boat crosses, so on a lucky day one may surface near the boat. It is a chance, never a promise, and the right response is to look and leave it be.
What a loggerhead is
Loggerhead is the English name; Caretta caretta is the scientific one, and it is the name you will see on signs and in the news along this coast. It is a sea turtle, a reptile that spends its life at sea but breathes air like we do.
That last point is the one that matters on a boat day. A turtle has to come up to breathe, and those few seconds at the surface — a rounded head, the top of a shell, a slow dive again — are the moments a guest might catch. Blink and it is gone; that is part of the charm.
Why it is protected
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the loggerhead as a vulnerable species. In Türkiye, sea turtles are protected under the Bern Convention on European wildlife and habitats, to which the country is a party, and the Turkish coast is among the places in the Mediterranean where loggerheads come ashore to nest.
For a guest on a boat, all of that comes down to one plain rule: a protected wild animal is to be watched, not handled.
If one surfaces near the boat
- Keep still and point it out quietly to the people beside you, rather than calling across the deck.
- Do not reach for it, and do not swim towards it if you are in the water — let it breathe and dive in its own time.
- Throw nothing over the side: no food, no bread, no rubbish.
- Take your photograph from where you stand. Leaning far over the rail gets you a worse picture and a wet phone.
The same habits serve for dolphins — see watching wild dolphins well.
Where on the trip they live
The operator's record places the turtles in the sea, in the open water around Dolphin Island (Yunus Adası), where the boat anchors for the long swim. It says nothing about turtles on the Manavgat river, so neither do we; the river stretch is about the calm ride down to the coast.
Seeing one is no more certain than seeing a dolphin, and for the same reason: both are wild. Our honest page on the odds is will we see dolphins?, and the island stop itself is described on Dolphin Island.
The day around the turtles
Whatever surfaces, the day is the same: pickup from your hotel, the river, a swim at the river mouth, BBQ lunch on deck, the island swim, a last dip and the foam party home. A grown-up ticket is €21, children from 2 to 10 travel for €15, and payment is in euros on the day itself. Book a date when you are ready.
