The sea turtles Spring and Liliana, returning from short periods of hospitalization and rehabilitation at the Turtle Point of the Dohrn Zoological Station, National Institute of Biology, Ecology and Marine Biotechnology, have found freedom in the sea of Procida.
The release, coordinated by the marine protected area of the Kingdom of Neptune with the support of the coast guard of Procida, under the command of lieutenant Calogero Carapezza, took place off the coast of Punta Pizzaco, in front of a group of divers and the international volunteers of Project SEA for SEA.
An identification ring was applied to the two Caretta carettas: Spring had been recovered in difficulty in the waters of Capri last March 21, the date of the beginning of spring. Liliana had a much shorter hospital stay: recovered on May 22 in the waters of Procida by the ANS Diving of Ischia, she was transferred to Portici where the radiographic examinations had excluded fractures and pathologies and the ultrasound ones showed, very welcome, the presence of the eggs. in the abdomen. "It could nest on the Campania coast in the next few weeks, probably within a month", explains
Sandra Hochscheid
, coordinator of the monitoring network of sea turtle nesting in Campania for the Turtle Point, rehabilitation and treatment center for turtles of the Dohrn Zoological Station, which directed the release operations. "At the moment - he explains - 22 turtles are still hospitalized at our center: we often hospitalize them following ingestion of plastic or due to collision with boats".
“On such an important day - explains the director of the marine protected area of the Kingdom of Neptune,
Antonino Miccio
- we can only raise public awareness so that they always adopt responsible behavior aimed at protecting the biodiversity of the seas of Ischia and Procida. Our appeal to yachtsmen is, for example, to avoid damaging the Posidonia meadows by anchoring on the seabed of our marine area ”.
