Tuesday, 30th June 2009 - 11:04CET
Rescued turtles get a new lease of life
Video: Paul Spiteri Lucas
Eleven turtles were released back to the sea this morning after having been rehabilitated from injuries they suffered when they were caught by fishermen.
Injured turtles are rehabilitated in a facility at San Lucjan Tower in Marsaxlokk operated by the Resources Ministry. The facility was recently augmented with an X-Ray machine donated by the Health Department.
Among the turtles released back into the sea was one that had been taken to San Lucjan when still young and in poor condition, having been injured by a harpoon. It could not swim or even eat on its own, but it has since recovered and grown to over 50 kilos.
The turtles were released at Golden Bay in the presence of pupils from eco-skola and Resources Minister George Pullicino. Some of the children carried placards urging people not to dump plastic bags in the sea - the turtles swallow them and suffocate after mistaking them for jellyfish.
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Turtles are becoming more endangered. It has recently been made known by MEDASSET that due to Climate change more and more female turtles are being born with less and less males. So this is another worrying factor we have to work on.
Thanks for the interesting info and well done for all the education work you guys are doing.
When you checked the feasibility of Malta as a breeding ground for turtles, was Filfla considered as a place to lay the eggs? There is little light pollution (at least on the south side) and it has been well protected for many years and likely to remain that way. Of course there can never be a total guarantee of their protection, but hefty fines, tracking devices and volunteer monitoring can go a long way in mitigating the risk.
Keep up the good work.
I add that genetics should be used in order to breed more turtles in order to repristinate the turtle level and fix slightly the eco imbalance which is the cause of the skyrocketing jellyfish problem.
Yes indeed - loggerheads used to nest on our beaches - the last recorded nesting on a Maltese beach dates back to 1960 at Golden Bay - that day, those witnessing the event ended up eating the poor creature and its 50 odd eggs. Our beaches are plagued with too much light pollution and seacraft of all kinds for us to harbour any hope of turtles nesting again, despite Lampedusa boasting a beach (Spiaggia dei Conigli) where loggerheads still nest today. Globally, there are 7 different species of marine turtles, with loggerheads being the largest and most common (in the Med'n). The sex of the hatchlings depends partly on the temperature at which eggs hatch.
Shades of Monty Phyton.