Release of Six Loggerhead Turtles in Torrevieja
Four of these turtles arrived at the Seville Aquarium last March from the ARCA del Mar of the Oceanogràfic Foundation.
The Seville Aquarium and the Oceanogràfic of Valencia have today released six young turtles into the sea at La Mata beach in Torrevieja. Their eggs (along with 82 others) were laid in Sueca over a year ago, in one of only four nests documented in 200 years on the Valencian coast.
Of these six turtles, four have been cared for at the Seville Aquarium for the last seven months, allowing them to complete their growth, strengthen, and share space with other species until their return to the sea. This provided a unique opportunity to educate visiting public about the current threatened status this species faces in its daily life in the marine environment.
Various political representatives participated in the release event, as well as representatives from the Seville Aquarium and the Oceanogràfic, along with students from CEIP Ciudad del Mar, who wished them good luck for their new adventure at sea. Following speeches by the president of the Oceanogràfic Foundation, the Mayor of Torrevieja, and the Director of Education at the Seville Aquarium, six students carried cards with the name of each turtle and read two wishes for each of them. Subsequently, the more than two hundred participating children were able to see and touch the turtles up close in an interactive session where our mascot Chelo collaborated.
This has been an extraordinarily successful experience, as the turtles, which were born weighing 18 grams and measuring 4 centimeters in length, now weigh 1.5 kilos and measure 18 centimeters.
A Feeding and Preparation Program
Luck would have it that some bathers at Les Palmeres beach discovered a loggerhead turtle laying eggs last July and alerted 112, receiving instructions on how to care for the nest until technicians from the Stranding Network arrived. This entity, composed of the Department of Infrastructure, Territory and Environment, the University of Valencia, and the Oceanogràfic, decided to move the eggs to a less crowded beach in El Saler, Valencia, where most of them eventually hatched and were able to reach the shore naturally.
Of these eggs, 16 were recovered following the “head starting” program, in which the Department of Environment, University of Valencia, and Polytechnic University also participate. They were studied in the aquariums of Seville and Valencia. During this time, after hatching more quickly, the animals have been specially fed and cared for, serving to provide insights into details of their physiology and behavior.
The purpose of this program has been to ensure that the hatchlings reach sufficient size, weight, and swimming, diving, and feeding skills to increase their chances of survival in the open sea, while also avoiding many predators.
To this end, during the final months of the project, they have been provided with food as similar as possible to what they will find in the sea, such as jellyfish and other invertebrates, complementing their daily diet based on algae gelatin, fish, and cephalopods, thus enhancing their hunting instinct.