Cristina Hodgson
A TOTAL of 37 sea turtle eggs have hatched this Tuesday night on the beach of Cabopino in Marbella.
The original nesting took place on the night of August 3-4 on the Los Boliches beach in Fuengirola where a female loggerhead turtle built a nest and then laid 72 eggs.
However as the original nest was located very close to the shore, the eggs were collected and transferred to a quieter beach in Marbella, near Cabopino, where there is no artificial lighting, to help them reach full term.
Being deposited in an overly wet environment could, according to experts, drastically reduce the chances of the eggs hatching.
Since the transfer 200 volunteers have collaborated in the surveillance of the eggs.
The alert of ‘movement’ in the 2×2.5 metres nest was given at 11:03pm on Tuesday by one of the volunteers.
A total of 37 loggerhead turtles have hatched so far, described by experts from the Aula del Mar association in Malaga as ‘beautiful, about five centimetres long’, and ‘very much alive”.
The Junta has made the decision to move the hatchlings to Algeciras, where, according to an official statement, they will be ‘fattened’, and then released in a year’s time on the coast of Marbella when they have ‘grown a little’ and the probability of surviving in the face of predators ‘will be a little greater’, it said.
Meanwhile, experts are waiting for another 28 eggs to hatch.
It is not yet clear if the turtles in the remaining eggs have reached full term or have died, with experts predicting that some may still hatch in the next few days.
Additionally, seven eggs were originally transferred to Bioparc Fuengirola where, in an incubator and attended to by experts in reptile reproduction, their development and hatching are being monitored.
These hatchings are the first recorded for this species to occur in Malaga or on the coasts of the Alboran Sea.
