A year has passed since the day I arrived in Turkey.

A year has passed since I witnessed beaches littered with amounts of plastics and garbage previously thought unimaginable.

A year has passed and so much has changed but also so little. The beaches still polluted, the turtles still struggling to access their rightful land and place to lay their eggs.

Like specters, they come out of the sea, crawling through the wet sand at night, pushing against bottles, rotten foods, cigarette buds, aluminum cans, diapers and all kinds of plastics to give lay their eggs. Pushing against all odds to create life.

I spent almost two months last summer, volunteering for the organization Third Eye Mersin, last summer, which works towards the protection of sea turtles and their nesting grounds close to Mersin, Turkey. Time to start sharing some of the images that we created and share the dramatic story of the sea turtles which come to lay their eggs in the Easter Mediterranean.

Image: A sea turtle (Chelonia Mydas) moments after laying its eggs.