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Egypt: The Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs - 25 December 2005    

Egypt has declared its commitment to achieve significant improvements in Environment and reverse loss of Environmental resources, in order to reach Sustainable Development.
In this regard," The Egyptian Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs" MSEA has made major efforts in protecting its unique biodiversity; it arranges an efficient daily sea and land patrols in order to control the excessive hunting.
Recently, Egyptian sea Rangers have seized a sea turtle with one of the fishers during a sea patrol in the Mediterranean. A committee from the MSEA was formed to examine the turtle.

It was found to be a male Chelonia mydas (green) turtle, aging about 155 years old, and weighing 50 kilo grams. The turtle was in good health, and no injuries.
According to Egypt Environmental Protection Laws and Appendix 1 of "The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora" CITES, the Egyptian Environmental authorities have taken the decision to release the turtle to its habitat (The Mediterranean Sea), as it was one of the species threatened with extinction and CITES generally prohibits commercial international trade in specimens of these species.

Green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, get their name from the color of their body fat, which is green from the algae or limu they eat. Adult green sea turtles are herbivores, meaning that they eat only plants, and therefore do not pose a threat to any other animals. Green sea turtles depend on bacteria in their guts for digestion of plant material.
It is worth notifying that, there are two species of sea turtle, Chelonia mydas (green turtle) and Caretta caretta (loggerhead), nest on the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. Active nesting beaches are presently located mainly along the shores of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, and to some extent Libya and Egypt.

The Order of the Merit of the Grand Officer of the Italian Republic (Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) from H.E. President of the Republic of Italy to Eng. Maged George, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs - 7 November 2005