The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, within the actions of the LIFE INTEMARES project that we coordinate from the Biodiversity Foundation and in collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía and the Generalitat de Catalunya, has participated in the marking and release of 10 one-year-old loggerhead turtle hatchlings, five of them on the Andalusian coast and another five on the Catalan coast.

The releases of the turtles have taken place on the beach of Vila-Seca (Tarragona) and on the beach of Cabopino (Marbella). The release of the five specimens on the Andalusian coast has had the participation of personnel from the Marine Species Area of MITECO.

The released specimens come from the clutches of female loggerhead turtles found on the beaches of Algeciras (Cádiz) and Vila-Seca in 2020. After a year of permanence in the captive breeding program, they have been released on the beaches where the nests were found, since, after their maturation, the females will return, with a high probability, to nest in the place where they were born. In this way, they are encouraged to occur  new nesting episodes on our coasts and support the conservation of the species at a global level.

The ten released specimens have an electronic device adapted to their size and body weight, in order to track them via satellite and obtain information on their behavior at sea in their early stages of life, a period that has been called “the lost years” of turtles due to the lack of information about the species during this period of great importance in their development.

With the involvement of the Ministry, coastal autonomous communities, scientific and recovery centres and universities, this action will make it possible to obtain information to promote measures for the protection of these marine reptiles, monitoring actions and lines of research.

The turtle journey will be visible through the Internet, thanks to the SeaTurtle web monitoring platform, created by the international scientific community to support research and joint knowledge work for the management and protection of sea turtles in the world.

STUDY THEIR BEHAVIOR

This action, framed in the LIFE INTEMARES project, will make it possible to study the survival and behaviour at sea of loggerhead turtle hatchlings (Caretta caretta), a vulnerable species that nests on Spanish beaches in the Mediterranean on an increasingly regular basis.

Although the Spanish Mediterranean coast has not been a frequent nesting area for sea turtles until now, the distribution of loggerhead turtle nesting has expanded and now also includes the coasts of the western Mediterranean -Italian, French and Spanish and North Africa-. Scientific studies suggest that we could be facing a process of adaptation of the species, derived from the effects of global change.

RESULTS OF THIS NESTING SEASON

The monitoring activities carried out during the summer have made it possible to locate and protect six loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nests in different locations on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, such as Tarragona, Barcelona or Almeria. The identification and protection of the nests has been possible thanks to the collaboration of research and recovery centres, administrations of the autonomous communities, environmental organisations and the involvement of civil society.

One of the most striking cases was that of a turtle that tried to lay its eggs unsuccessfully in Salou (Tarragona), but did succeed on the Tarragona beach of Calafell with a clutch of 146 eggs, 85 of which were translocated on the same beach, far from the tidal line to avoid the risk of flooding. The rest were moved to artificial incubators to ensure their survival.

Another success story was the laying of 142 eggs in Arenys de Mar (Barcelona). In Almeria, there was also a loggerhead turtle laying, in a cove near Carboneras beach, where 20 hatchlings were born.

ENSURING YOUR PROTECTION

Also within the actions that we carry out in the LIFE INTEMARES project, MITECO promotes, in close collaboration with the autonomous communities, a series of action measures to promote the settlement of sea turtles on the Spanish coast, improve their knowledge and guarantee their protection.

Specifically, it is working on the preparation of the Strategy for the conservation of loggerhead turtles and other sea turtles that use Spanish waters as feeding, development, reproduction or transit areas on their long transoceanic journeys. In addition, it is also working on the development of a national protocol for the attention of nesting events of the species, which will try to unify the different existing regional protocols.

EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS

The LIFE INTEMARES project advances towards the objective of achieving an effective management of the marine areas of the Natura 2000 Network, with the active participation of the sectors involved and with research as basic tools.

The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge coordinates the project. The ministry itself, through the Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification; the Regional Government of Andalusia, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, as well as the Environment and Water Agency; the Spanish Institute of Oceanography; AZTI; the University of Alicante; the Polytechnic University of Valencia; the Spanish Fisheries Confederation, SEO/BirdLife and WWF-Spain. It is supported by the LIFE Program of the European Union.