Some sad news from Posedarje.
As Morski writes on the 26th of February, 2018, Zadar County Center 112 received a message on Sunday about the discovery of a deceased turtle on the shores of Novigrad, close to the church of Sveti Duh in Posedarje.
An authorised veterinarian will take care of the turtle’s body and inform the appropriate official body about the unpleasant discovery and the unfortunate fate of the turtle.
The reasons behind what exactly occurred and the turtle’s odd behaviour before death remains a bit of a puzzle. It is known that when winter arrives and when sea temperatures drop, young turtles leave the Northern Adriatic, but where they go isn’t known. Owing to the amount of unknowns when it comes to their behaviour and where they go during the colder months, a team of Croatian-Slovenian scientists from the NETCE project tagged 10 turtles back in 2014 to track their movements and behaviour, with the hopes of understanding them more and therefore offering them better protection and care.
In Croatia, all types of sea turtles are properly and fully protected by the law.
Only about one percent of turtles manage to live to reach sexual maturity, putting their species in grave danger.
With fishing as just one of the threats that face these majestic and gentle creatures, aside from that, an increasingly large number of turtles are harmed by plastic pollution, such as bags, bottles and other waste that is thrown into the sea. Turtles often confuse floating plastic bags in particular for jellyfish.
Tourism development has also affected turtle nesting sites: light and sound pollution threaten not only adults but disorientate very young turtles. According to Blue World (Plavi svijet) data, it is estimated that over 5,000 sea turtles are caught each year in the Adriatic.
