Cooperation is key to loggerhead turtle preservation
Rising temperatures are driving these turtles to lay their eggs on cooler coasts such as those of Spain, France and Italy.
For about ten years now, loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) have been seeking to nest on cooler beaches than those of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Israel where they usually lay their eggs. This colonisation is due to rising water temperatures caused by climate change, which prevents males from hatching and reduces the survival of hatchlings. For this reason, these turtles now choose beaches on the Spanish coast (such as the Valencian and Catalan coasts) and the rest of the western Mediterranean, such as the coasts of France and Italy.
‘Turtles are very sensitive to environmental changes. Their adaptation to new nesting areas alerts us to the magnitude of the effects of climate change’, explains Irene Álvarez, researcher at CT BETA of the University of Vic – UCC. This year, 12 nests have been detected in Spain, 10 in France and more than 500 in Italy. In Catalonia, one has been recorded on the Savinosa beach (Tarragona), from which 80 turtles hatched this August. Last year, 10 nests were recorded in Catalonia, a record number since this phenomenon began. ‘In order to identify the approximate time of laying, we monitored the temperature of the 90 eggs under the sand,’ explained Elena Abella, a researcher at the centre.
Commissioned by the Department of Territory of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the nest management operations were coordinated by CT BETA. As always, once the presence of a nest is confirmed, the City Council, the CRAM Foundation (Foundation for the Conservation and Recovery of Marine Animals), members of IRBIO of the University of Barcelona responsible for genetic studies, Rural Agents, and environmental organisations that help to search for volunteers who are responsible for monitoring and protecting the nesting areas are mobilised.
This environmental phenomenon not only involves coordination within Catalonia, but also at a national level, and internationally with France and Italy, where they are also experiencing this process. In response to this, the Life Turtlenest project was launched in January last year, co-financed by the European Union and coordinated in Italy, with the participation of the University of Barcelona. The aim of this project is to create an international network to protect Caretta turtle nesting areas and mitigate human impact on the coasts and beaches where nesting occurs. The initiative is being developed in the coastal regions of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Basilicata, Apulia, Campania, Sicily, Sardinia and Tuscany), the French region of Camargue, the Côte d’Azur and Corsica, and the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Murcia, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia.
The Life Turtlenest project works to improve practices to protect emerging turtle nesting sites, and to improve the training of beach managers. Awareness campaigns have been initiated to inform citizens and stakeholders about the presence of turtle nests, and to encourage support for policies to protect their habitats. Work is also being done to gain more scientific knowledge to understand the evolution of the phenomenon, by assessing how the habitat changes due to the current and future climate, which will allow better management decisions to be made.
