On Sunday 26th of June 3 of us, volunteers of Project M.A.R.E., together with around 30 American students visited a special place related to marine science : the Zoological Station in Portici.
Arriving first at Portici we learnt about how the zoological station in the past used to be the slaughterhouse of the King of Naples. Quite ironic considering that since 1986, the building has been a turtle center, and even though the outside part is decorated with bulls, inside is hosted a veterinary hospital for turtles. It is a short-term facility for them, until they manage to improve their condition, and hopefully be successfully released.
Guided tour in the Zoological Station of Portici.
The two main questions that popped in everybody’s mind were, why and how do the turtles reach there, and why do we pay so much attention to their rehabilitation? Firstly, the main species that is found in the Zoological Station of Portici is the Loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, a turtle species vastly known for its nesting in the Mediterranean sandy beaches. C.caretta adult females when they are ready to reproduce (every 2-3 years), visit the beach in which they were born, and using their flippers create their nests. When the hatching is happening, new-born turtles emerge together from under the sand and guided by the moonlight and the stars return to the sea and swim for 24 hours straight. Sometimes due to the existence of outside sources of light, the new-borns can be disoriented. Scientists in beaches with high light-pollution place dark fabrics around the nest to prevent this from happening. Following that step, and for 20 years, nobody knows where they are exactly, since they survive by following the currents and there is not enough information about how they manage to keep on living or what they do. The newborns are able to remember the chemical composition of their place of birth and the magnetic fields that lead them back to it, and that is why they are able to return there for their own reproduction.
The guide explained to us in detail the three main challenges that sea turtles are facing and are closely related to their way of life and reproduction.
Climate change is a great issue for them, since the sex of the hatchlings is not determined through genes, but through the environmental conditions of the nest. The temperature is the main parameter that controls the sex ratio, since high temperatures lead to the prevalence of female individuals, while lower temperatures, leads to male presence. In one nest, depending on the location of the eggs, usually the ones on top are the females, while the ones on the bottom are the males. This is a result of top eggs’ exposure to higher temperatures. Climate change, however, has led to the increase of temperature, consequently on the beaches as well. This creates a very dangerous trend for the species, which is the fast increase of the females in the C.caretta communities, females with not enough males to reproduce. Sometimes scientists during monitoring of nesting and hatching, artificially cool down the nests to ensure that males are being also born.
Fishing and high-speed boats (recreational boats or fishing) are one other threat for them. Turtles are often entangled on fishing gear (especially abandoned nets and hooks) or are being severely damaged by the boats. A serious injury on the carapace can lead to issues of their nervous system since their carapace is closely connected to it. Such injuries are very hard to recover. Two of the turtles in the center of Portici are in the intensive care unit and unable to be released, due to the severeness of their injuries on their carapaces.
Plastic is often mistaken as food by turtlesPlastic collected from a sea turtle’s stomach. Sea turtles are known for their help in controlling jellyfish blooms.Plastic can look very similar to jellyfish leading to its consumption by the marine animal. Accumulation of plastic in their stomachs causes feeding or other medical issues, which pose another threat for them.
Later, we had the chance to meet three of the turtles in the medical unit with less serious issues ! The tanks in which they are placed, are equipped with specialized heating systems and are strongly monitored.
The students meeting the turtles
The first turtle we met was Faster. He is still young and has been found by fishermen and faces trouble eating, due to some vision issues. Scricciolo is a smaller turtle, which has been raised in captivity in Spain and later released. After he was found, they realized that he has mobility issues, due to his inability to see.The last turtle we met was Alessia and was found by a boat. She is swimming with her mouth open and that is how she also greeted us!
ScriccioloAlessiaFaster
In some cases, before they release the turtles, tracking devices are placed on them, allowing scientists and not only, to observe their journey (if you want to follow their journey yourself, you can go on seaturtle.org)
The last part of our tour included learning about some other marine animals found in Italy such us: the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiop truncatus), the striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleo alba) and lastly the short beaked dolphin (Delphinus delphis), which was also found on roman frescoes.
The entrance of the Zoological Station
The ceiling was decorated by those species and some shark species as well, giving you the feeling that you are entering a sort of Mediterranean sanctuary, a place to enjoy, appreciate and learn about challenges that species faced during the last decades.
Since 2013 the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanella has been hosting international volunteers, funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus + program and from 2019 through the ESC program (European Solidarity Corps) that support operators of the marine park in activities like: cleaning beaches and sea, environmental education, sea turtle rescue, spreading information and awareness. Volunteers collaborate for a medium term period (from March to December). They are mainly involved in the conservation and monitoring of Ieranto Bay. The help they provide is highly valuable to us for the protection of Punta Campanella Marine Park.
