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ARCHIVED - 3,000 kilometre journey of the Colomera turtle from Valencia to the Greek Islands
This turtle has been rescued twice and was fitted with a tracker when she was released from Oropesa del Mar in June
There are so many stories of plastic waste killing marine creatures and the work of marine conservationists to save marine environments and the marvels they contain.
Although the messages are principally educational and working to raise awareness of the problems humans are causing for the marine environment, there are also many, many stories of amazing achievement and reminders of what an incredible world we live in .
One of these relates to a creature which has become known as the “Colomera turtle” 100 kg female turtle rescued twice in the Valencia region and which has this week shown researchers how turtles can make impressive voyages in a remarkably short time, the tracker on her back showing that she has travelled over 3,000 km in little more than a month.
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.
It’s heartbreaking to see the images of turtles completely entangled in fishing nets, with raffia bags wrapped around their necks, their shells shredded by outboard motors or just floating on the surface starving to death with their stomachs full of plastic waste, but that’s the price they pay for our activities; only one in a thousand loggerhead turtles will reach adulthood.
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 and the Balearic Islands as well as Murcia last year.
This loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) received the name "Colomera", as a reference to the characteristic 16th century Torre Colomera, built to guard the coast against attacks by Berber pirates, a few meters from the site of her release.
"Colomera" is a “big girl”, weighing in at 100 kilos and measuring 87 centimeters in length, and is classified as the largest of those that have been registered in the Oceanogràfic Foundation's sea hospital, the ARCA del Mar del Oceanogràfic in all its years of existence.
She has been in the ARCA twice, after being accidentally caught on two occasions by trawling.
The first time was in December 2015, in Benicarló, and she was caught in nets floating on the surface with symptoms of air embolism and once cured she was returned to the sea in April 2016.
At the beginning of 2019 she was back in the ARCA del Mar again, where a fishing hook lodged in her esophagus was discovered, which was extracted and once she had fully recovered was fitted with a tracker and returned to the sea on June 25th this year.
She was tracked from Torre Bellver Beach in Orpesa (Castelló) from June 25th, and, after passing the Columbretes Islands, continued her journey to the Balearic Islands. After touring the coasts of Palma de Mallorca she crossed into the Strait of Sicily and has been swimming for three weeks in the Greek Gulf of Ciparisia, the nesting area of these marine species.
The coastal habitat of the Gulf of Ciparisia is a «typical area» for turtles nesting; in addition to other factors such as the possible presence of other specimens and the availability of food in the area.
According to the information sent by the satellite transmitter that she wears on her shell, she has travelled more than 3,000 kilometers in just over a month before settling in to a more leisurely routine and her behavior continues to be "apparently normal."
The transmitter will fall off at some point and she’ll disappear from the radar; hopefully it’ll be the last time she needs the help of the Oceanogràfic de València and the Azul Marino Foundation although it would be lovely to think that at some point in future years that she might be sighted in the waters off the Valencian coast again, although this time without needing the help of the hospital.
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