Cristina Hodgson
A ONCE exceptional occurrence of nesting sea turtles in Spain is becoming more and more common, and climate change is believed to be the reason.
At least fifteen sea turtle nests have been detected in recent weeks on beaches along the Spanish coast, in addition to the hundred or so nests laid in Italy, a record number of nestings on the coasts of the western Mediterranean in a single season.
The details have been confirmed by various experts from the universities of Vic, Barcelona and the Polytechnic of Valencia, which, with the collaboration of the University of Valencia and the Doñana Biological Station, has begun work on the InGeNi-Caretta project.
The InGeNi-Caretta project is funded by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Biodiversity Foundation and the European Union, and seeks to find out why this colonization is happening and make it easier to make decisions about the phenomenon. the increase in the temperature of the Mediterranean due to climate change and the sands on the beaches.
According to biologists, climate change is modifying the nesting range of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta, taking it to regions where it has not nested before, posing new challenges for biodiversity management in these areas.
In the last decade, western Mediterranean beaches are experiencing an increase in the frequency of loggerhead turtle nests, the survival of which depends on the viability of hatchlings on the nesting beaches.
According to the project’s biologists, this emerging colonisation is occurring in areas with a high human occupation, as is the case on the Spanish coast, which is why appropriate management is necessary to favour the success of these nests in coexistence with the human presence.
The first sea turtle nest detected this season in Spain appeared at the beginning of June on Can Pere Antoni beach in Palma, Mallorca.
It was soon followed by more nests detected on beaches in Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Andalucia, the most recent being the nesting discovered last weekend in Marbella.
READ MORE:
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- Loggerhead turtle stranded on beach in Spain’s Malaga is rescued
- HISTORIC EVENT: Sea turtle lays eggs on Los Boliches beach in Spain’s Malaga in first ever recording of turtle nesting in area
