“This is a rare event, but not unique”, as the representative of the Molfetta Turtle Centre tells us, Pasquale Salvemini. «In fact, it has already happened three other times that female specimens of Carretta Carretta treated at our center have all laid eggs in Zakynthos, Greece. There is no doubt that this news has filled us with immense joy».
Salvemini adds: «when we freed her last year, from the ultrasounds we saw that she had follicles of 20/22 millimetres, obviously we did not know where and when she would lay her eggs, as turtles have a “gestation” that can last from two to four years».
The news of the happy event of Karapinar’s nesting came through an email sent by a professor at Cumhuriyet University, who with a group of researchers is working on the monitoring and conservation of the Caretta Caretta turtle. The specimen was identified thanks to the tags placed on its front flippers before its release last June on the occasion of World Oceans Day.
“This event once again makes us understand that we are on the right track, as our Center”, Pasquale Salvemini said, “is not only concerned with recovery, treatment and return to their environment of turtles but has also become over the years a research center that we constantly carry forward with the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Bari and Pisa.
We collect information to better understand these animals, about which we still know very little. For example, we have all the data on this turtle, which allows us not only to examine the migratory routes, but to do real research, now also in collaboration with the Turkish University.
These are events, this one like the previous ones, that fill us with joy, that make us move forward with greater determination. The collaboration with the local navy has also been fundamental, as it constantly takes care of and does not release back into the sea the specimens that accidentally get caught in their nets”.
