Turtles are born in Naples: exceptional discovery in San Giovanni

Turtles are also born in Naples: an exceptional discovery along the coast of the metropolitan city, in the San Giovanni a Teduccio neighborhood, once heavily industrialized and polluted and now abandoned.

This is the place that a sea turtle has chosen this year to nest and give birth to its young. The hatching occurred in the last few days and the fishermen of the association Il mare bagna San Giovanni noticed the presence of the little ones intent on reaching the sea and saving themselves.

They noticed the presence of some small sea turtles on the shoreline of the free beach in vico Prima Marina in the eastern Naples neighborhood of San Giovanni a Teduccio, an area that was heavily industrialized and polluted until the mid-70s and is now abandoned.

After helping some of them to reach the sea, protecting them from the seagulls already ready for an easy meal, the fishermen informed the municipal police who alerted the specialized personnel of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the reference body in Campania for the monitoring of sea turtles.

The researchers found no traces of the event, erased by the trampling of people and the wind, and therefore did not locate the egg chamber. Fortunately, they managed to locate, thanks to the help of the people present, a still-living calf, immediately taken out to sea, and a dead one among the rocks, where it had probably ended up due to disorientation caused by the public lighting.

These little ones, together with the videos recovered by the fishermen who had witnessed the first emergences, leave no doubts and allow us to write in the register of this summer of records also the first nest of a sea turtle laid along the coast of the municipality of Naples: it is the 56th recorded during this season by the team of the Caretta in vista project, coordinated by the Stazione Zoologica.

An incredible number if compared to those of a decade ago, when sea turtle nesting in Campania were exceptional events with a biennial frequency. An increase resulting from climate change and the general improvement in the conservation status of sea turtles in the Mediterranean.