Elisa - Mayotte Island Green Turtles 2005

A project of Islameta Group, Dept. of Biology - University of Pisa.

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After the release on the beach the turtle decidedly started to move Southwards, following the Eastern coast of Italy a few Km offshore. After swimming for several hundreds km along the coast, she has made for deeper waters, to the middle of the Ionian Sea. The turtle has circled in a relatively narrow and presumibly suitable foraging area located in front of the Peloponnisos Western coast for about one month, before approaching the Greek coast. During March, Elisa has headed Estwards moving round the Peloponnisos peninsula, crossing the Mirtoan Sea and reaching the Cyclades Islands. After having spent some weeks in the Gulf of Saronikos (in front of the Piraeus harbour) she has moved Southwards reaching rapidly the Northern coast of Crete and making a clockwise circumnavigation of the island interrupted by a stop in Mesaras Bay ,between the second week of June and the end of July. In August, the successive Northwards movement has led the turtle first to the Southern and then to the Western Peloponnisos coast. Last week Elisa has reached the Albanian waters and now she is still heading Northwards; she is returning to the Adriatic Sea, after 9 months from her first passage through the Strait of Otranto.

Background

The Northern Adriatic Sea is a very important foraging and overwintering area for a large number of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). In these waters juveniles are also commonly found, spending part of their pelagic developmental phase.

Many human activities take place in the same marine area, especially boating (either recreational and industrial) and fishing. As a consequence, turtles frequenting the Northern Adriatic Sea are often exposed to anthropogenic threats, and indeed injured or ill sea turtles are often found stranded or involuntarily caught by fishermen. They are then rescued and recovered by local volunteer organizations cooperating with local institutions. ARCHE' (Research and Educational Activities for Chelonian Conservation) is a association promoting the study and conservation of protected species, with a special attention to marine turtles. Thanks to a collaboration with the veterinarians of the local Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute has recently build up an expertise on the treatment and recovery of injured sea turtles.

Elisa is an adult-sized female loggerhead (CCL: 78cm, weight: 70.4kg) which has been caught in a trawl-net on Oct. 28. She was satellite tagged and released on Wednesday, 3 Nov. near Porto Garibaldi (Ferrara).

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• This map connects positions generated by the ARGOS system designated as location class (lc) '3', '2', '1', 'A', 'B'. Locations that have been "filtered" are displayed as small red dots.
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