Balance sheet in chiaroscuro for Italy on the world day of sea turtles.
In the last five years (2016-2021) there has been an increase in the number of nests, with over 5,000 babies born on the Italian shores.
But the phenomenon of sea turtles captured by trawl nets also remains high: 25,000 every year in Italy.
80% of the Caretta Caretta in the Mediterranean have then ingested plastic. The data are from the report "Italia Peninsula of the turtles" produced by WWF on the occasion of World Sea Turtle Day. The Mediterranean is home to three species of sea turtle: the common turtle (Caretta caretta ), the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) and, although rarer, the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea).
These nest mainly on the eastern coasts of the basin, while the common turtle Caretta caretta is the
"In the last five years (2016-2021) - explains the WWF - there has been an increase in the number of nests which, however, represent only a few dozen of the approximately 8 thousand of the entire Mediterranean".
The latest data are from 2020: WWF Italy operators and volunteers intervened on 108 nests from which more than 5,000 chicks emerged and reached the sea.
Most of the nests have been identified in Sicily, as many as 81, followed by Calabria with 26 and Basilicata with 1 nest.
The result is to be considered particularly significant if we consider that in 2019 there were 46 nests found while there were only 26 in 2018. The Mediterranean is a key area for turtles and a biodiversity hotspot, but - reports the WWF - also of threats that arrive from human activities.
It is the sea that is warming up faster and is "invaded" by waste: every year, 570 thousand tons of plastic end up in the sea.
These two factors, together with intensive fishing activities and the impact with boats, act on all stages of the life cycle of sea turtle species, which in the IUCN Red List, appear as endangered (except for the sea turtle flat back, Natator depressus, still classified as Data Lacking).
The figures are dramatic: in the Mediterranean over 150,000 turtles are accidentally caught each year by fishing hooks, lines and nets and over 40,000 die.
In Italy alone, 25,000 sea turtles are caught by trawl nets every year.
WWF has launched a series of actions: from monitoring to protecting nests,
