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ARCHIVED - Murcian young loggerhead turtles tracked to African and Balearic coastlines
Some of the 21 young turtles released managed to cover 300 kilometres in their first two days of freedom
It is now a month since twenty-one 12-month-old loggerhead turtles were released into the Mediterranean at one of the beaches of Calblanque in the municipality of Cartagena, having hatched from their eggs in the late summer of 2019 and become the first of their species to begin life in the Region of Murcia for over a century.
Satellite transmitters were fitted to several of the young turtles to try and track their progress and follow them as far as possible to ascertain just where these turtles travel to during the first few months of their new lives in the wild.
Although transmitters do fall off and equipment fail, this provides a fascinating insight into the journeys of the young turtles and researchers can see from data transmitted that two of the turtles are currently in north African coastal waters while the other four appear to have settled closer to home, not far from the coastlines of the region of Valencia and the Balearics, although two of these first made their way towards Algeria before returning to Spanish waters. The locations of the other 15 are not known, although it can be supposed that they are not far from their brothers (all of the turtles are male).
300 kilometres in their first two days
Despite weighing only 1 kilo when they were released, the young turtles clearly relished the prospect of exploring the open sea after a year in care at the Oceanográfic in Valencia and at the Imida centre in San Pedro del Pinatar, and travelled over 300 kilometres in their first two days of freedom with the help of marine currents.
The most adventurous of the young turtles so far have been Argonauta, Caretto and Bobico, names selected from those suggested by the 40 volunteers who have been monitoring the presence of loggerhead turtles on the beaches of the Costa Cálida. Argonauta and Caretto have both reached the coast of Algeria, the former currently being close to Tunisia, while Bobico travelled first to northern Africa before heading back north to the south of Mallorca.
Meanwhile, the three turtles being monitored by the Department of the Environment have not strayed as far: Arturo (named after the cove in which their mother nested last year) swum northwards along the coast to Benidorm and then to northern Mallorca, Escipión is still in open seas between Alicante and Benidorm after an initial trip to the coast of Algeria and Aníbal’s last known location was just north of Benidorm on 10th October, four days after he had been located off the coast of the regional park of Calblanque. Aníbal’s transmitter was picked up again on 26th October, but it was not possible to establish his location.
This “radio silence” on the part of Aníbal is worrying, but it may be simply that his transmitter is malfunctioning or has been lost, and he may yet reappear. Another young turtle released from Valencia at the same time as those in Calblanque was “lost” for over three weeks until the radio signal was first picked up on 29th and 30th October.
Information updates on the exact location are only sporadic because for the transmitter signal to reach the satellite the animal must be on the surface when the satellite is overhead. At the same time, the transmitter has to be charged, and if it has not been exposed to sufficient sunlight this is not the case.
The transmitters being employed were developed specifically for use in these loggerhead turtles and are designed to remain operational for between 3 and 12 months. It is anticipated that the data gathered will contribute to increasing our understanding of how the species survives in the Mediterranean, where it started to nest again relatively recently due to the effects of climate change in its usual breeding grounds in the Caribbean.
The progress of the young turtles can be followed on this link; the journey of Argonauta, Bobico, Caretto, Arturo, Anibal and Escipión
Those with an interest in turtle conservation may find another article written this week of interest, relating to the efforts of Galician long-line fishermen to save the lives of turtles accidentally caught in the course of their fishing activities. Click to read.