34 sea turtles released on Can Pere Antoni beach

PalmThe Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, through the Consortium for the Recovery of Fauna of the Balearic Islands (COFIB), released 34 sea turtles this Tuesday (Caretta caretta) born this summer on Can Pere Antoni beach in Palma.

The event, held at 5:00 PM on the same beach where the nest was located, brought together institutional representatives, scientists, and volunteers. Attendees included the Director General of Natural Environment and Forest Management, Anna Torres; the Director General of the Environment for the Palma City Council, Sebastià Pujol; as well as members of COFIB, the Palma Aquarium Foundation, LIMIA, the Natura Parc Foundation, and the volunteers who monitored the nest and the hatchlings.

As Torres explained, "these types of actions demonstrate the effectiveness of coordinated work between administrations, research centers, and conservation entities, and confirm that the Balearic Islands have a well-established response system for new nesting cases." The Director General emphasized that the consolidation of these protocols "not only allows us to improve the reproductive success of the species, but also to obtain essential scientific information about its biology and adaptation to the western Mediterranean."

The nest was discovered last July and contained 77 eggs, 67 of which incubated naturally and 10 of which were transferred to an incubator to ensure their viability. The hatchings, which occurred on September 6 and 7, resulted in 63 successfully hatched chicks.

Of these, 39 turtles have joined the program Head Starting 2025-2026, led by COFIB and framed within the national strategy for the conservation of the species. The project, developed in collaboration with other autonomous communities, consists of raising the turtles in a controlled environment for 10 to 12 months to increase their survival rate upon release. The hatchlings have been distributed among six marine research and conservation centers: LIMIA, CRAM (Catalonia), Palma Aquarium Foundation, the Cabrera National Park Visitor Center, and aquariums in Seville and Gijón. The remaining 34 turtles, now fully grown, were released back into the sea today on their native beach, in a public event that brought together institutions, organizations, and numerous citizens.

The Caretta carettaThe loggerhead turtle, or European loggerhead sea turtle, is listed as vulnerable in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species. Although it traditionally nested in the eastern Mediterranean, experts point out that the increase in sea temperature has favored its reproduction in the western Mediterranean in recent decades.