Date Published: 10/09/2020
ARCHIVED - 10 loggerhead turtles from the Es Cavallet nest hatch in Ibiza
ARCHIVED ARTICLE This is the first time eggs have been left to hatch in the sand on the island.
Ten baby loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) hatched on the beach of es Cavallet, in the Ses Salines Natural Park of Ibiza and Formentera on Thursday morning.
It is the first time that eggs have hatched in situ on the beach on the island, although the eggs were moved from their original nest site in order to improve their chances of hatching.
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.
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.
Only one in a thousand loggerhead turtles will reach adulthood, hence the existence of protection programmes 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, Catalonia, the Region of Murcia and the Balearic Islands.
These eggs were originally laid in July in Cala Nova and have been born after 58 days of incubation, reports the Ministry of the Environment.
The youngsters have been transferred to the Marine Research and Aquaculture Laboratory (LIMIA), where they will be raised until they have reached an appropriate weight and size to be returned to the sea, normally around one kilo which generally takes a year.
There have now been 12 hatchings from this clutch of 99 eggs.
On September 1st, after only 49 days, two eggs which had been put in the incubators of the Fauna Recovery Center of the Balearic Islands (COFIB), in Mallorca hatched. Part of the original 99 egg clutch were put in incubators as a precautionary measure, although the majority of the eggs were reburied on the beach.
The nesting site is the subject of 24 hour vigilance as there are still 69 eggs which may hatch. In 24 hours the nest will be opened to see if any turtles are trapped inside and to assess whether any of the remaining eggs are likely to hatch.
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