The Seville Aquarium Receives Two Specimens of Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta)
The Aquarium launches a sea turtle recovery plan in its facilities
The Seville Aquarium takes another step in its intention to preserve the environment and launches a Sea Turtle Recovery Plan in collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía (Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning) and the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC).
The project, in which different aquariums in Andalusia collaborate, aims to restore the nesting of these turtles in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, laying the foundations to prevent the extinction of this turtle in the Eastern Atlantic.
Currently, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning has 13 loggerhead turtles in this project, of which two specimens, a compatible male and female, will become part of the breeding project at the Seville Aquarium. To make their adaptation as quick as possible, a tank has been designed that recreates as faithfully as possible a suitable habitat for this species.
The project, active since 2006, consists of bringing loggerhead turtle eggs from the Republic of Cape Verde and burying them on beaches in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park. Once the turtles are born, they are kept for a year in a recovery center to increase their survival rate, and then released in the Cabo de Gata nature reserve with the aim that, when they reach sexual maturity, they return to the target beaches of the project to nest, thus joining the breeding population.
Additionally, the Seville Aquarium will have specific signage about the biology and main threats to this species in its facilities, as well as develop workshops with the project’s theme, to raise awareness among all visitors about the current situation of these animals in the marine environment, with the intention that the information transforms into attitudes of respect towards the environment that put a stop to the pollution and deterioration of the planet’s seas and oceans.