Updated 2.18pm

A turtle has nested at Golden Bay, Nature Trust Malta said. 

The loggerhead turtle was spotted at around midnight making its way up the beach and laid its eggs by 1am, a Nature Trust spokesman said.  

The eggs were laid some 5 metres up the beach and preliminary indications suggest they will not have to be moved, as had happened during a previous nesting in 2012. 

The nesting area has been cordoned off. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Nature Trust members have cordoned off the nest, which is in between Golden Bay's public beach area and the Radisson Golden Sands resort private beach, until Environmental Resource Authority experts take over. 

The organisation is now appealing for volunteers willing to lend a hand to keep watch of the site and ensure the eggs are kept safe and away from curious crowds.  
"We urge all who can give a few hours to let us know. The roster has to be compiled for the next 70 days," the post read. 

Nature Trust had set up a similar volunteer-driven turtle watch roster in 2012 when a loggerhead turtle had laid eggs at Ġnejna Bay. Those eggs never hatched, with environmental authorities subsequently concluding they had become water-logged due to the underlying blue clay.

That nesting was the first recorded one in decades, with a previous one dating back to 1960, said marine biologist Alan Deidun. 

A 2005 paper published by Prof. Deidun and Prof. Patrick Schembri described an eyewitness account of the 1960 nesting incident, which also occured at Golden Bay. 

According to the eyewitness, people watched the turtle lay its eggs before digging them up, catching the mother and eating the lot. 

Prof. Deidun speculated that Golden Bay was more suitable to successful nesting than Ġnejna Bay.

"It holds a larger dry sand area where the beach profile is less steep, thus lowering the chances of the eggs being washed out at sea and making the clambering of the turtle onto the beach much more convenient," he said. 

Female sea turtles return to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs. Researchers are still not sure just how they manage to do this, although recent research suggests they rely on the Earth's magnetic field to find their way. 

Loggerhead turtles tend to lay between 3 and 6 nests a season, with anything up to 130 eggs in each nest. Their eggs incubate for around 60 days before hatching.  

Turtles nest at night, finding a dark and quiet spot on the beach to nest in and then using all four of their flippers to dig a body pit. Once that is done, they use their rear flippers to dig an egg chamber, scooping out sand as they go along. 

Eggs are quickly laid, and once her clutch is complete, the mother closes the nest using her rear flippers and covers the eggs in sand. She then returns to the sea, never to return to the nest.  

Interested in volunteering for turtle watch duties?  Email kareng@onvol.net and CC info@naturetrustmalta.org