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article_detail
Date Published: 06/08/2020
ARCHIVED - Major fortifications erected to protect turtle eggs in La Manga del Mar Menor
90 of the eggs have been transferred to a nest in a more secure area of the beach and 10 to an incubator in the regional wildlife recovery centre.
The precious clutch of eggs laid by a turtle on a beach of La Manga del Mar Menor on 23rd July is hopefully incubating nicely under the sand where staff from the regional wildlife recovery centre have reburied them in order to maximise the possibility of some of them hatching, and are being carefully watched and monitored in the hope that baby turtles may emerge from beneath the sand.
So precious are these eggs that an enormous protective ring has been built around them, with a wooden fence in the interior, and large concrete blocks outside of the inner rink to kep out hungry animals, trophy hunters and vandals.
There is also 24 hour security in the form of a physical human presence guarding the precious eggs and watching for signs of life.
Whenever possible, eggs are left on the beach on which they are found in order to ensure that when they hatch the hatchlings have some instinct for the beach on which they were born; we still don´t understand how some of the miracles of the natural world work, but it’s common for animals, mammals and birds to have an inherent sense of where “home “ is, and it is hoped that by leaving the eggs on the beach that this may in years to come bring turtles back to this same spot to perpetuate the circle of birth.
90 eggs were moved to a safer location about 500 metres from the site of the original nest as the original site was right in the middle of a bathing area and too close to the shore to guarantee safety. As "mum" will not return to care for the offspring should they hatch, any hatchlings will be taken to the wildlife recovery centre and reared in safe conditions.
As a precaution, 10 were put in an incubator in the wildlife recovery centre.
Last year the first turtle nest in 100 years was found on a beach in the region and 21 precious baby turtles were hatched from that clutch of eggs. These are growing healthily in the installations of the Oceanographic Centre of san Pedro del Pinatar and in Valencia, and will hopefully be released at the end of the summer having reached a weight of around 1 kilo.
The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is classified as “vulnerable” in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species and as “in danger” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Among its main threats are the ingestion of plastics and different types of flotation debris, their accidental capture in fishing nets, the entanglement of drifting fibers or lines and, to a lesser extent, collision with boats or the destruction and alteration of nesting beaches.
Turtles are regularly found off the Murcian coastline and those which can be saved are taken to the regional wildlife recovery centre for nursing and subsequent release. It’s heartbreaking to see the images of turtles completely entangled in fishing nets, with raffia bags wrapped around their necks, their shells shredded by outboard motors or just floating on the surface starving to death with their stomachs full of plastic waste, but that’s the price they pay for our activities; only one in a thousand loggerhead turtles will reach adulthood, hence the protection programme to give them a “headstart in life” by taking them up to one year of age in controlled conditions.
A gradual rise in water temperatures in recent years has caused more turtles to return to Spanish beaches and eggs have been found on the coast of the Comunidad Valenciana, the province of Almería and the Balearic Islands as well as Murcia last year.
And now we wait………
If you do see a trail in the sand, or encounter a laying turtle don´t touch, try not to disturb the turtle and call 112.
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