Volunteers to monitor Diana the turtle's nests

Since tonight, a group of volunteers has been monitoring the four nests that the Diana turtle has laid on the beaches of Denia (Alicante) in recent weeks, from dusk to dawn, awaiting the hatching of this unique animal's young.

A hatching, at least the first clutch, is expected by the end of this week or the beginning of the next, but they will not be the first of this season in the Valencian Community, following the sighting yesterday in Almazora (Castellón) of a group of newborns from a nest that had gone unnoticed by the technicians and officials of the various administrations that monitor the Levantine coasts.

A surveillance in which volunteers, residents of coastal towns and holidaymakers play a special role. As with the initiative organized by Denia City Council, the "Denia Turtle Camp," they generously dedicate part of their time to nature conservation. In this case, they are monitoring a small stretch of sand in the hope that the hatching will occur on their schedule.

Frequent visitor

Diana, a loggerhead sea turtle (caretta caretta), is already a frequent visitor to Denia: Toni Martínez, environmental and marine coordinator for the Denia city council, explains that in 2023 this turtle laid three nests on the Marineta Casiana – Marge Roig beach, and that a satellite tag was installed at that time for monitoring and study.

Last year, it doesn't appear to have visited the area, but one or two of its conspecifics did: two nests were recorded after hatching on different beaches in the area. This circumstance, the fact that the laying was detected, led the city council to prepare a surveillance system for this season with volunteers and NGOs, which, according to Martínez, has been a complete success: "Three of the four nests monitored this year were located by these volunteer groups."

As for the camp, organized together with the NGOs Xaloc and Eucrante , this year marks its second edition, after the one held in 2023.

Carla Eymar, vice president of the NGO Xaloc, explained to EFE that in the Valencian Community they have currently controlled the four nests in Denia, two more on the Saler beach, coming from Piles and Puig, and another one in Elche, and that camps similar to the one in Denia are planned to be set up in Elche, starting on August 19, and in Valencia, starting on the 23rd of that same month.

Eymar highlights that this year, for the first time, nests have been recorded in all three provinces of the Community, following yesterday's sighting in Almazora and two nesting attempts in Nules and northern Castellón, which join those sighted in Catalonia, Murcia, and the Balearic Islands.

According to him, "the latest genetic studies indicate that we have both Mediterranean and Atlantic turtles, and even that there's hybridization, and that they're coming because they're already here. Climate change is the logical explanation for their presence in our waters; they're moving to new areas and to the already known major nesting grounds in Italy, Greece, and Cape Verde. We can now say that the Spanish Mediterranean is now joining the fold."

He adds that "the ideal would be for this to become normal and for it to happen like in Cape Verde, with beaches where they all come out at night to lay nests, but the truth is, it's too early to know. Perhaps we'll only have eight or nine turtles established in the area, nesting each year."

What seems clear is that "the fact that they are born here implies that the newborns, when they reach adulthood, will return to these beaches or other nearby ones to build their nests."

If they reach adulthood, since according to the data scientists have, only one in every thousand reaches that age: Diana has laid a total of 316 eggs, of which 29 have been taken to L'Oceanográfic in Valencia for artificial incubation and study before release. EFE