Aug
1
Written by:
frank zindel
01.08.2009
By EFE Agency – August 1st, 2009
Seville (EFE). - The Council of Environment and the Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) have released 80 loggerheads (Caretta caretta) in the de Gata-Níjar National Park (Almería),as part of the reintroduction project of this species in the Andalusian coast.
In an official notice sent today to EFE, the Board informs that the released turtles come from eggs brought from Cape Verde last year, and that were placed in Almeria beaches, where they were born.
Once the eggs hatched, the technicians of the project transferred the turtles to the Centro de Gestión del Medio Marino de Algeciras and to the facilities of the Formación Agraria y Pesquera de la Junta en El Toruño (Cádiz).
They remained in these centers for a year and they developed satisfactorily, until diminishing the predación risks that the turtles may undergo during their first months of life, explains the note.
With this release “continuity is given to the project and the success of the restoration program of the nesting of the loggerhead turtle in beaches of Andalucia improves noticeably”, after it was initiated in 2006, explains the Board.
The loggerhead turtle is in serious danger of extinction across its range around the world, reason why the project will be reinforced soon, with 500 more eggs being brought again from Cape Verde.
A part will be deposited in different beaches in Almeria Natural Park and the rest will be incubated in a controlled way in the experimental facilities of the Biological Station of Doñana in Seville.
This project is intended to significantly extend the nesting area of the loggerhead turtle in beaches of Andalucia that have with good incubation conditions.
At present, in the Eastern Atlantic, from South Africa to Europe, this species only nests in significant numbers in a small island of Cape Verde called Boavista, where the systematic hunting of females and the high mortality of nests by flood or depredation put in danger the survival of this reproductive nucleus in thousands of kilometers of the coast.
The project seeks the restoration of the nesting of the loggerhead turtle, with the objective of incite permanent nesting of this species in the coasts of Peninsular Spain, and turning this into ecological assets to incorporate to the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park.
© EFE 2009
Original article (in spanish) can be found in:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5gfW2wNDuC5bQrNO_XUTiDADvxM-g
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