A monument dedicated to June Haimoff, better known as “Captain June,” was unveiled on the Iztuzu beach of Ortaca, a district of the southwestern Turkish province of Muğla on Sunday. The artwork combines the likeness of the late British woman who is lauded for her devotion to saving sea turtles on the beach and elsewhere, with the turtles she admired.
Haimoff had died at the age of 100 in Dalyan, a quarter where the Iztuzu beach is located, due to multiple organ failure, where she spent the last decades of her life.
The British woman, who acquired Turkish citizenship in 2011 and was buried with Islamic rituals, was a well-known name in the expat community calling Muğla home. A jet-setter in her youth, Haimoff first visited the Dalyan coast with her boat in 1975, at a time when the place was not discovered by foreign tourists. Falling in love with the region, she frequently visited on future vacations and finally in 1986, decided to settle there, in a makeshift house on Iztuzu beach and on her boat, earning the nickname of "Captain." When Caretta carettas, or loggerhead sea turtles, nesting at the beach piqued her interest, she started devoting her time to the amphibious creatures.
An activist, Haimoff is credited with organizing a campaign to stop the construction of a hotel on the breeding ground of turtles on the beach. Her activism brought attention to the challenges Caretta carettas faced.
The monument was commissioned by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change and built with the contribution of Ortaca municipality. The ministry’s branch director in Muğla said the monument was unveiled on Environment Day, which Turkey observed for the first time this year. Ortaca Mayor Alim Uzundemir told reporters that Captain June made “Dalyan what it is today.” “It is beautiful to have Captain June, as a Briton, to come from a far away place and fight for preservation of this Turkish beach. We are grateful to the ministry to install this monument here to immortalize Captain June,” he said.
