Date Published: 02/07/2021
ARCHIVED - Several turtle trails appear on Murcian beaches but no eggs yet
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Trails have been found on the beaches of Calblanque and La Manga del Mar Menor
It’s turtle egg-laying season again and after two consecutive summers successfully rearing young turtle hatchlings from eggs laid on the region’s beaches, hopes are high that the success of the last two years may be repeated again this year.
This year a campaign is being undertaken to pre-warn beach goers via leaflets and videos to watch out for possible signs of turtles in advance and take the correct steps to ensure that the authorities are alerted and can remove the eggs.
The message this year is the same as last year; turtles must be allowed peace and quiet and nothing should be done to disturb them: the best course of action is to keep your distance, ensure that others do the same and alert the authorities by calling the 112 emergency services line so that staff from the Wildlife Recovery Centre in El Valle can take charge of the situation.
On no account attempt to touch them or use flash photography, and where possible avoid appearing in their line of sight and making loud noise.
If you see any tracks in the sand, call the same number.
Until recently it was rare, although not unheard-of, for loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) to lay eggs on the beaches of Spain, but in recent years there have been several instances per year, and one of the reasons is likely to be the rise in sea temperatures. In order to reproduce, the species requires a water temperature of between 22 and 24 degrees, and then the ideal conditions in which to bury and incubate eggs in the sand include a temperature of around 29 degrees at a depth of 40 centimetres.
Until a couple of decades ago those conditions simply didn’t exist in Spain, or at best were very infrequent, but over the last 17 years more than 30 nestings have been reported in this country, and experts believe that the “best” beaches for such events are those of Alicante, Murcia and Almería. This is because they prefer wide beaches with fine sand and little in the way of tides, perfect conditions for which can be found along our own coastline.
Although this is good for turtles, the warming of the Mediterranean is bad news for the environment and the Med. is the fastest warming ocean on earth. Read this report from the World Wildlife Fund about how this will affect conditions for marine life in the future.
This year particular attention is being paid to trying to detect nesting sites in order to protect the eggs, vigilance services being run largely by environmental volunteers.
This week there have been three separate incidences of turtles coming ashore onto beaches in the region reported:
The first set of tracks were found in Calblanque on June 27th, showing a single turtle had come ashore.
A second set of tracks in the sand were found in La Manga del Mar Menor on June 30th and then on the morning of July 1 a further four sets of trails were found on Calblanque beach.
No eggs were laid in any of the locations, but this does show female loggerhead turtles are swimming around the Murcian coastline at the moment looking for a location in which to lay.
Two years ago one nesting site was found, the first eggs laid in the region for 100 years; 21 of these went on to hatch and these turtles were released aged one year. Some of them were tracked and have since been detected swimming as far afield as Greece and along the African coastline.
Last year 43 hatchlings were successfully hatched in a nest found on the playa Ensenada del Esparto (San Javier), at km.14 of La Manga del Mar Menor and a further four were found in Calnegre, Lorca, having hatched on a well-hidden nest on the beach there.
Hopefully, in the days to come a female will come ashore and decide to leave her eggs at the end of her trail onto the beach and back to the sea.