A report of nesting on a Maltese beach by the Loggerhead Turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus 1758) (Reptilia: Cheloniidae).
The Central Mediterranean Naturalist 4 (2): 137-138.
Zusammenfassung:
Of the seven species of marine turtles in the world, five occur in the Mediterranean: the Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) Green (Chelonia mydas), Kemp's Ridley (Lepidochelys kempi), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea). Of these, only the first two listed now breed in the Mediterranean. The Leatherback is mainly an Atlantic species that regularly enters the Mediterranean in small numbers and apparently used to occasionally breed there, although there are no recent records of it doing so; the Hawksbill is a tropical species that only very rarely enters into the Mediterranean, while Kemp's Ridley is an Atlantic species for which there is only a single record from the Mediterranean. All the five species recorded from the Mediterranean have also been recorded from Maltese waters. The Loggerhead forms part of the Maltese fauna. Until it was declared a protected species in 1992, it was regularly landed and offered for sale at the Fish Market in Valletta. There are reports that the Loggerhead also used to breed in the Maltese Islands. It has been assumed that the Maltese beaches have been abandoned as nesting grounds for at least 75 years. In August of 2005, one of us had occasion to interview a person ho described in great detail a turtle emerging from the sea, crawling up the sandy beach at Ir-Ramla tal-Mixquqa (Golden Bay), to excavate a nest in the sand and deposit a clutch of eggs. This event happened some time between the 1 st and 15th of July 1960.
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