About these bones
2016 – 2018
The loggerhead sea turtle–Caretta caretta–lives throughout the oceans and seas all over the world, prefers breeding in temperate and subtropical regions. Since 2015, Caretta caretta has been enclosed in the Red List of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and it has been classified as “vulnerable”, as subjected to extinction. Scientists believe that the world population of this species is decreasing.
These animals are very sensitive and pay for several human activities, such as: man exploitation of the coasts, due to artificial light in breeding areas, global warming (the increase of the sand temperature inside the nests affects the sex of the about to be born), pollution and bycatch fishing are the main treats for this species.
The subpopulation of the Mediterranean area mainly breeds along the coasts of the East basin, while few nests are recorded (identified) in the West one. Every year, there are about 150 thousand captures (the sea turtles are victims of bycatch, careless fishing, with nets and baits, in particular trotlines, trawls and bottom gillnets) as well as 40 thousand deaths, due to fishing and to the clash with boats and ingestion of plastic material.
Even if man, in this case, looks like a torturer, he has got also all the instruments and remedies to put an end to this massacre: there is a net of professionals (doctors, vets, biologists, marine biologists) who freely carry on several researches and activities, surveys, advertising and sensitive campaigns. Each year, thanks to their presence and working cooperation, hundreds of specimens are saved and released in their natural sea habitat.
Audio track by Daniele Di Girolamo
