ARCHIVED - Murcia-born loggerhead turtles continue their exploration of the western Mediterranean
The young turtles were among the first to hatch in the Costa Cálida for over a century
It is now over two months since the 21 loggerhead turtles, the first known to have hatched on the beaches of the Region of Murcia for over a century were released into the sea in Cala Arturo, in the regional park of Calblanque, and the three being tracked by the ANSE naturalists association continue their explorations of the Mediterranean as they search for productive feeding grounds.
After a year of being raised in captivity, the turtles named Caretto, Bobico and Argonauta have now swum hundreds of kilometres and the satellite transmitters fitted to their shells continue to provide intermittent data regarding their locations. The most adventurous of the three appears to be Argonauta, who on 5th December was off the south-western coast of Sardinia, some 800 kilometres from the beach where his mother laid her eggs and he was released 12 months later, while Bobico is not far behind and is known to be around half-way between the Balearics and Sardinia.
Meanwhile, after 20 days of radio silence a signal was received from Caretto’s transmitter close to the island of Ibiza.
The latest locations of these three young turtles, along with those of the three being monitored by the regional government of Murcia, can be found on this website. The government reports that Arturo, Anibal and Escipión have followed very different routes: having first travelled to eastern Algeria Escipión has returned to the area close to Murcia and Alicante, Arturo is close to the coast of southern Catalunya and Aníbal’s latest location, on Thursday 10th December, was off the coast of Valencia not far from Denia, Jávea and Gandía.