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Date Published: 16/05/2023

Loggerhead turtle released on Calblanque beach, Murcia

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The young turtle, an endangered species internationally, was returned to the wild today

Loggerhead turtle released on Calblanque beach, Murcia

A loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) was released into the sea today, Tuesday May 16, on the Playa de Calblanque beach after recovering at the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Centre.

The young turtle had been rescued 11 kilometres from the coast, near the municipality of Mazarrón, by workers from a whale watching company and was transferred to the Wildlife Recovery Programme 2023.

After the alert to the Forestry Coordination Centre, a team from the Wildlife Recovery Centre went to the area to pick up the animal and took it to the El Valle facilities. Now, after treatment and recovery, it has been released back into the wild.

The animal, 23 cm long and weighing 1.5 kilos, had been trapped in netting and other manmade debris in the sea, which damaged his front flippers and meant he couldn’t swim.

Loggerhead turtles are classified as a ‘vulnerable’ species in the List of Wildlife Species under Special Protection Regime and in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species, and as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The main threats to this species are the ingestion of plastics and different types of floating waste; accidental capture in fishing nets; entanglement in drifting fibres or fishing lines; and, to a lesser extent, collision with boats or the destruction and alteration of nesting beaches.

This is the first loggerhead turtle released on the Murcia coast so far this year and, like those released in previous years, it has been kitted out with a microchip under its skin which will allow it to be identified if it is recaptured at some point in its life.

This also helps scientists to collect important information about the demography, movements and global threats affecting this species.

In 2022, 3,081 specimens of different species of native fauna were admitted and recovered at the facilities of the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Centre, most of them birds (83.74%), and mainly during the months of June (931) and July (756). The city of Murcia leads in the number of animals admitted with 1,323, followed by Cartagena. Of the animals admitted, 1,024 (33.24%) were released.

Images: CARM

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