Staff from the La Azohía trap, in Cartagena, technicians from ANSE and the Wildlife Recovery Center of El Valle proceeded this Saturday to release a huge male specimen of loggerhead sea turtle, more than one meter in length and more than 80 kilos in weight, which had been trapped in the last trap on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
After verifying that the animal had no injuries and was in good veterinary condition, it was transported in a boat to one mile south of the trap and was released, submerging and swimming normally.
The metal mark on one of its fins, and the reading of the microchip housed inside, allowed us to know that it was the same animal that had already been accidentally captured for the first time by a trawler on October 18, 2023 off the coast of Castellón. , when he was transferred to the Ark of the Sea at the Oceanogràfic in Valencia, where he entered weighing 80 kilos and remained in recovery until January 2, 2024, when he was released on the coast of Peñíscola.
The animal was also equipped with a tracking device called pop-ups, installed within a 'Project supported by the MITECO Biodiversity Foundation within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed with NextGenerationEU funds', which was released the two months automatically, and which has made it possible to obtain valuable information on their movements along the Mediterranean coasts.
The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is a species classified as 'vulnerable' in the List of wild species under special protection regime and in the Spanish Catalog of Threatened Species, and as 'endangered' for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. .
The presence of adult male loggerhead turtles on the coasts of the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula has not been frequent in the past. There are only a few reports of accidental captures in fishing gear, and observations made aboard marine research vessels, such as those made from the sailboat Else by the Association of Southeastern Naturalists.
Precisely, the capture on two occasions and in a very few months of this male loggerhead turtle constitutes a rarity on the Spanish coasts, and shows the dangers that these animals face to survive and be able to reproduce in waters with intense exploitation. human for millennia.
But also, the way in which accidental capture has ended shows the growing collaboration of the fishing sector with marine environment conservation entities and the administrations responsible for the management of threatened species, giving a new opportunity for the life and reproduction of a species. which, probably helped by changes in the temperature of coastal waters, is significantly increasing its breeding population on the western Mediterranean coasts.
ANSE, which has worked on different projects with this and other species of marine fauna since the mid-90s of the last century, highlights the collaboration that the management and staff of Almadraba La Azohía have been showing for years to prevent the mortality of species protected and threatened when they are accidentally captured in their nets, improving the management of the animals to facilitate their release with the least possible damage.
During the next few months, coinciding with the reproduction period, the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia develops the Turtle Territory Program to monitor and manage the reproduction of these animals and prevent damage to the nests.
Precisely, during the summer of last year there was a laying on the beaches of Isla Plana (Cartagena), very close to La Azohía, after several failed attempts in previous years, although the eggs were moved to a new location on the beaches of the Park. Calblanque Regional.
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