Caring for creation: Inside Israel’s new National Sea Turtle Rescue Center

As sea turtle populations worldwide are being affected by pollution, fishing activity, and habitat loss, conservation efforts are increasingly moving beyond quiet rescue work toward public engagement. In Israel, the newly-opened National Sea Turtle Rescue Center invites visitors to witness marine conservation as it happens, while building on decades of existing rehabilitation work.

The new Sea Turtle Rescue Center, located in Alexander Stream National Park, functions as an active hospital for injured sea turtles, alongside research, breeding facilities and environmental education. Israel’s largest population of softshell turtles is found in the Alexander Stream, where they inhabit freshwater channels, swamps, and shallow tributaries. The new facility stands out for its unusual practice of allowing the public to observe treatment and rehabilitation in real time.

Visitors can observe the daily work of veterinarians, caregivers, and volunteers treating turtles injured largely by human activity, including entanglement in fishing hooks and nets.

The opening of the new national center marks an expansion of sea turtle rescue efforts in Israel. For more than two decades, this work has been led by the Israel Sea Turtle Rescue Center, based at the Mevo’ot Yam School campus near Mikhmoret on Israel’s central Mediterranean coast.

Established in 1999 by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), the original center has rehabilitated more than 700 animals – primarily sea turtles – returning roughly 70% to the wild. Its work has included emergency treatment, protection of turtle nests along Israel’s beaches and creating breeding nuclei for green sea turtles, much of it powered by volunteers.

According to the Parks Authority, which oversees both centers, opening the doors of a working rescue hospital to the public was a carefully considered decision.

INPA Director Raya Shourky said, “I am very excited to present to the public a project that we have worked on for years with great care and sensitivity. The center is a unique site unlike any other in Israel, and visitors will be able to see an active hospital and immerse themselves in the special and vital world of sea turtle rescue.”

Beyond emergency care, the new center supports a breeding nucleus for green sea turtles, scientific research, and environmental education programs designed to deepen public awareness of marine conservation.

Dr. Yaniv Levy, director of the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center, emphasized the integration of treatment and education. “The center’s activities combine medical treatment for turtles with the breeding nucleus, various research projects, educational guidance, and increasing environmental awareness, and all of this is now being made accessible to the general public for the first time.”