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Marine Turtle Newsletter 36:3, © 1986

Loggerhead Turtles at Lampedusa, Italy

Dieter Gramentz
Földerichstrasse 7, D-1000 Berlin 20, Federal Republic of Germany

The island of Lampedusa is the largest of the three Pelagic Islands, situated east of Tunisia. It is another example of economic exploitation connected with the disappearance of marine turtles. Although protected by law in Italy, the turtles are hunted illegally by Sicilian and Lampedusan fishermen. Larger quantities by far are caught by Tunisian and Maltese fishermen in whose countries no protection exists for the turtles. Further reasons for the decline at Lampedusa are beach destruction and advanced tourism.

Until circa 1940/1950, sea turtles laid their eggs on several beaches all around the island. They were often seen at Conigli Beach, Cala Croce, Cala Guitgia, Cala Francese and possibly at Cala Pisana. Nowadays a very small number of Caretta caretta is still laying eggs at Conigli Beach, which is the one most visited by tourists at Lampedusa. In August 1985, 250-300 people were counted by day and 30-50 by night. The formerly large number of sea turtles is still remembered by the islanders-eggs and hatchlings used to serve the children as playthings decades ago. Since about 1950, it has seemed to the inhabitants that the turtle numbers have decreased steadily. It is a widespread belief that duirng the last 5-10 years, the turtles have disappeared completely.

The first female of 1985 at Conigli Beach came on 27 June and after a track of 8 m she laid 101 eggs, of which 78 hatched after incubating for 66-74 days. She was tagged with tag # ME 5102, showing a return address of the Musée Océanographique de Monaco. This turtle came up again after 23 nights. She made two attempts to dig a nest but gave up both because of stones. This happened also to another turtle on 2 September. The number of females still visiting Conigli Beach could be as many as 1 to 2 per year, or from 5 to 7 in a three year cycle. A table of reproductive activity for Conigli Beach is shown for the past 10 years (incomplete).

Tabel 1. Incomplete nesting statistics for Caretta caretta at Conigli Beach, 1975-1985.