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Assessing sea turtle movements and connectivity among different areas is pivotal to understanding their biology and implementing efficient conservation actions. In the Adriatic Sea, one of the most important sea turtle foraging areas in the Mediterranean, a total of 311 capture–mark–recapture (CMR) records (mostly bycatch) from 294 loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in the period 1984–2021 were analysed. A general fidelity pattern to Adriatic subareas was indicated by a significantly shorter CMR distance than the potential dispersal distance and by the significantly higher proportion of re-encounters in the same area of release than expected. No seasonal pattern was detected between subareas, and shorter re-encounter distances were observed in turtles released and re-encountered in the same season, suggesting different winter and summer residential areas. Results suggest that turtles frequenting the Adriatic can go anywhere in the Mediterranean basin and may exhibit a wandering behaviour regardless of their size. A substantial connectivity with nesting sites in Greece was observed, confirming with empirical evidence that this is the most important breeding area for turtles foraging in the Adriatic Sea. This study highlights the value of cooperation among different groups and shows a main behavioural pattern of fidelity to neritic foraging grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present 38 yrs of nesting data of the loggerhead population in Laganas Bay, Zakynthos, Greece, adding data for 2010–2021 to existing published data for 1984–2009. This rookery, encompassing 6 discrete beaches of 5.5 km total length, features the highest nesting density in the Mediterranean. The annual nest numbers, ranging from 667 to 2018, showed no significant long-term trend. Beach nesting contributions increased on some public-accessed beaches (as did nesting success), but decreased on a remote beach that previously held > 50% of all nests. These changes might be attributed to management actions by the National Marine Park of Zakynthos that improved conditions for sea turtles (e.g., restricting nighttime access to the public), indicating that the previously recorded high nesting density on the remote beach may have been atypical. Although no significant phenological changes were detected with the available data in the 20-yr period 2002–2021, the date of the first hatched nest shifted significantly toward earlier dates in the 38-yr data set. Clutch size and body size of nesting turtles exhibited significantly decreasing trends. Hatching success, hatchling emergence success, and in-nest hatchling mortality showed significantly increasing trends. The number of viable hatchlings decreased over the seasons, albeit not significantly, possibly a result of the decreasing clutch size. Incubation durations were revealed as shortening on all beaches, a potential sign of global warming, with a consequent suggested increase of female primary sex ratio. Continuation of this long-term monitoring program is expected to provide further insights in the reproductive traits of this regionally important loggerhead population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much is still to be learned about the spatial ecology of foraging marine turtles, especially for juveniles and adult males which have received comparatively little attention. Additionally, there is a paucity of ecological information on growth rates, size and age at maturity, and sex ratios at different life stages; data vital for successful population modelling. Here, we present results of a long-term (2002-2011) study on the movements, residency, growth and sex ratio of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in Amvrakikos Gulf (39°0'N21°0'E), Greece, using satellite telemetry (N = 8) and ongoing capture-mark-recapture (CMR; N = 300 individuals). Individuals encountered at sea ranged from large juvenile to adult (46.2-91.5 cm straight carapace length) and demonstrated growth rates within published norms (44 % of captures above 65 cm straight carapace length), compared to region-wide female-biased hatchling production, indicating sex-biased survival or possible behavioural drivers for likelihood of capture in the region. Satellite tracking confirmed that some turtles establish discrete, protracted periods of residency spanning more than 1 year, whilst others migrated away from the site. These findings are underlined by CMR results with individual capture histories spanning up to 7 years, and only 18 % of individuals being recaptured., Introduction Understanding the ecology of marine vertebrates is challenging as a result of the wide spatiotemporal scales over which their life cycles may take place (e.g. Block et al. 2005; [...]

The article reports that a Loggerhead Sea Turtle in Greece was observed to have a reproductive lifespan of 37 years, marking it as the longest recorded for the species. Topics include the longevity of Loggerhead Sea Turtles, methods for determining reproductive lifespan, and the role of tagging programs in tracking turtle lifespans.

Following a multi-decadal tagging program at loggerhead nesting areas in Greece, 28 individual turtles have been identified with reproductive longevities greater than 21 yrs, ranging from 22 to 33 yrs. Continuation of this long-term tagging program, along with improvement of tag retention through usage of PIT tags, are expected to increase the herein reported maximum reproductive longevity of loggerhead turtles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the nesting behavior of a Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) nicknamed "Stumpy," which was missing both hind limbs and flipper spades, shedding light on how turtles with such disabilities attempt to dig nests.

Information on caretta caretta from Caribbean including informations related to topics like its diet, the habitat in which it is found, and its physical traits is presented.

Sea turtles are vulnerable to climate change impacts in both their terrestrial (nesting beach) and oceanic habitats. From 1982 to 2012, air and sea surface temperatures at major high use foraging and nesting regions (n = 5) of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) nesting in Greece have steadily increased. Here, we update the established relationships between sea surface temperature and nesting data from Zakynthos (latitude: 37.7°N), a major nesting beach, while also expanding these analyses to include precipitation and air temperature and additional nesting data from two other key beaches in Greece: Kyparissia Bay (latitude: 37.3°N) and Rethymno, Crete (latitude: 35.4°N). We confirmed that nesting phenology at Zakynthos has continued to be impacted by breeding season temperature; however, temperature has no consistent relationship with nest numbers, which are declining on Zakynthos and Crete but increasing at Kyparissia. Then using statistically downscaled outputs of 14 climate models assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we projected future shifts in nesting for these populations. Based on the climate models, we projected that temperature at the key foraging and breeding sites (Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Crete, Gulf of Gabès and Zakynthos/Kyparissia Bay; overall latitudinal range: 33.0°—45.8°N) for loggerhead turtles nesting in Greece will rise by 3–5°C by 2100. Our calculations indicate that the projected rise in air and ocean temperature at Zakynthos could cause the nesting season in this major rookery to shift to an earlier date by as much as 50–74 days by 2100. Although an earlier onset of the nesting season may provide minor relief for nest success as temperatures rise, the overall climatic changes to the various important habitats will most likely have an overall negative impact on this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the leatherback sea turtle in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. It mentions that Dermochelys coriacea is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature that Dermochelys coriacea is classified as vulnerable worldwide.

The article presents a study which monitor nesting activities of loggerheads sea turtle in Zakynthos Island. The researchers from ARCHELON Association conducted daily beach surveys, tagging of female turtles and operation of nationwide Sea Turtle Stranding Network. Results showed that monk seals in Zakynthos prey on loggerheads during the nesting season. It concludes that declining marine species have forced monk seals to prey on turtles and suggests finding solutions to address the problem.

Abstract: The choice of a suitable nest habitat by oviparous reptiles that deposit eggs into a nest and provide no subsequent parental care is likely to play a major role in the survival of the offspring. In particular variations in nest temperature may influence the rate at which embryos utilise their yolk energy. The effects of nest temperature on total energy use are however complex. High temperatures may advance development and shorten the time to hatching, thereby reducing energy use, but they also stimulate metabolic rate increasing energy use. The net effect of temperature on total energy demands is therefore uncertain. Oxygen consumption (VO2) and carbon dioxide production (VCO2) were measured by open-flow respirometry during the incubation of loggerhead sea turtle eggs at three temperatures (27.6, 30.0 and 31.8 °C). At each temperature, VO2 and VCO2 showed a peak followed by a decline to hatching. Incubation temperature was negatively related to incubation duration and positively related to the maximum metabolic rate of the embryos. Peak VO2 was 74.8 ml/egg/day at 27.6 °C, 91.9 ml/egg/day at 30.0 °C, and 97.9 ml/egg/day at 31.8 °C. Peak VO2 occurred closer to hatching in eggs incubated at higher temperatures. Total energy expenditure was greatest at the lowest incubation temperature and lowest at the highest temperature. Total VO2 and VCO2 were 1777 ml/egg and 1226 ml/egg, respectively, at 27.6 °C, 1680 ml/egg and 1235 ml/egg at 30.0 °C, and 1613 ml/egg and 1191 ml/egg at 31.8 °C. Using the actual RQ values, this corresponds to a cost of development of 34,963 J/egg at 27.6 °C, 33,403 J/egg at 30.0 °C, and 32,107 J/egg at 31.8 °C. At all temperatures, the calculated respiratory quotient values did not suggest that yolk substrates were oxidised proportionately, but more likely indicated their sequential use. Nest temperatures may play a key role in energy use, with cooler temperature nests increasing the overall energy demands placed on developing embryos. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article offers information on the satellite tracking of a green turtle after nesting in Latakia in North Africa. It states that the population of green turtle or Cholia mydas in the Mediterranean has been demonstrated to be relatively discrete in the wider Atlantic. As for the tracking of the turtle, the article states the it lasted for 95 days during which the turtle migrated southward and then eastward. It also mentions that the turtle settled in the Bay of As Sallum, West Egypt where it remained in neritic coastal waters for the final 26 days of transmission.

Mating systems are a central component in the evolution of animal life histories and in conservation genetics. The patterns of male reproductive skew and of paternal shares in batches of offspring, for example, affect genetic effective population size. A prominent characteristic of mating systems of sea turtles seem to be a considerable intra- and interspecific variability in the degree of polyandry. Because of the difficulty of observing the mating behaviour of sea turtles directly in the open sea, genetic paternity analysis is particularly useful for gaining insights into this aspect of their reproductive behaviour. We investigated patterns of multiple paternity in clutches of loggerhead sea turtles in the largest Mediterranean rookery using four highly variable microsatellite loci. Furthermore, we tested for a relationship between the number of fathers detected in clutches and body size of females. More than one father was detected in the clutches of 14 out of 15 females, with two clutches revealing the contribution of at least five males. In more than half the cases, the contributions of different fathers to a clutch did not depart from equality. The number of detected fathers significantly increased with increasing female body size. This relationship indicates that males may prefer to mate with large, and therefore productive, females. Our results suggest that polyandry is likely to increase effective population size compared to a population in which females would mate with only one male; male reproductive contributions being equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Offspring sex ratio is an important demographic parameter and, given its determination by incubation temperature in sea turtles, might be a key factor for their conservation under climate warming. An appealing approach to estimate hatchling sex ratios is to measure sand temperatures at nest depth and deduce hatchling sex ratios from a beforehand-established relationship of hatchling sex ratio and sand temperature. Such estimates will only be accurate though if metabolic heat produced by the embryos is considered. Judging whether metabolic heating has a potential effect on hatchling sex ratios without actually measuring temperature within clutches would greatly facilitate monitoring protocols. We tested for a relationship between the amount of metabolic heating and the number of developed embryos as well as clutch size in the largest known loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) population of the Mediterranean on Zakynthos (Greece). Temperatures were measured within 20 nests as well as at a reference site in the sand at nest depth. Metabolic heating was detected, but only during the last third of the incubation period did nests heat up considerably (1.6°C on average) above the temperature of the surrounding sand. During the middle third of incubation, when sex is determined, the amount of metabolic heating was negligible. The amount of metabolic heating during the last third of the incubation duration was significantly correlated to the number of offspring developed to at least about 75% of incubation duration. This factor explained nearly 50% of variation in metabolic heating. Metabolic heating was also significantly correlated to clutch size. Given that clutch size within the Mediterranean is largest in Zakynthos loggerheads, we conclude that metabolic heating can be ignored in the estimate of hatchling sex ratios in Mediterranean loggerhead populations. These results thus provide the basis for a feasible monitoring of hatchling sex ratios in the loggerhead sea turtle in the Mediterranean. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article information on turtle specie Caretta caretta. It mentions that the predation rates are greater at early life stages and decline as turtles gain larger sizes. It also mentions that the current observation suggests that anglerfish in Greece are likely opportunistic consumers of juvenile C. caretta.

The article presents a study which explained the scalation patterns of loggerhead turtles nesting in Laganas bay, Zakynthos Island, Greece. The researchers from ARCHELON Association conducted a long-term tagging project in Laganas Bay to approach nesting females and observe their scalation patterns over a number of seasons. Results showing scalation sets such as nuchal, vertebrals and supracaudals with total of 767 observations distributed per season are provided.

The article discusses the nesting and foraging areas of loggerhead turtles which is described as areas where turtles reside during the non-breading season. It names the techniques in identifying these areas which include flipper tagging and satellite tracking. Through flipper tagging, it reveals foraging areas in the Adriatic Sea and in the Gulf of Gabes after their nesting in Zakynthos Island and Kyparissia Bay in Greece, which was corroborated by satellite tracking.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the guest editor discusses the future of the sea turtles in this changing world.

Female sea turtles typically lay several clutches during each nesting season and rest in the time between laying clutches (the internesting period) in the waters off the nesting beach. Adequate protection of turtles in the internesting area requires knowledge on their spatial behaviour and was so far hampered by methodological limitations. Satellite telemetry data of exceptionally high quality allowed us to scrutinize internesting area use of four loggerhead sea turtles nesting in the Bay of Laganas (Zakynthos, Greece). We assessed the efficacy of two zones of a marine reserve with distinct levels of protection (boats are excluded from one zone). Most of the obtained locations of three of the four turtles were within the bay, a result consistent with a strategy to minimize energy expenditure. Turtles showed no obvious preference for the highly protected area of the bay. The availability of warmer water in the less protected area may be more crucial than avoidance of boat disturbance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The sandy beaches of Zakynthos Island support the largest single nesting aggregation in the Mediterranean Region of the endangered loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta. The present study attempts to determine possible correlations between a series of habitat variables and nest site selection. Nesting activities, including total and nesting emergences were examined in response to the recorded biotic and abiotic variables. The results of the analysis indicate that beach width is the most critical habitat variable affecting nest site selection. Further analysis of nesting performance implies that sea turtles use multiple environmental cues for nest site selection during the different steps of the nesting processes such as emergence from the surf and nesting. Nevertheless, we caution that a detailed study needs to be conducted over a more extensive period of time to verify these suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is a philopatric species with a strong genetic structure, the analysis of mtDNA can be used to track evolutionary and colonisation events. In this study we use a genetic approach to understand the population structure of C. caretta in the Mediterranean Sea and to test whether loggerheads could have colonised the Mediterranean during the Pleistocene and survived the cold phases in warm refugia. We amplified a long mtDNA D-loop fragment (815bp) from 168 dead hatchlings sampled from a selection of rookeries in the Eastern Mediterranean: Libya, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece. Previously published data from Turkey and Calabria (Southern Italy) were also included in the analyses. The population nesting in Libya emerged as the oldest population in the Mediterranean, dating from the Pleistocene ca. 65,000years ago (20,000–200,000). This reveals that the Libyan population might have settled in the Mediterranean basin before the end of the last glacial period. The remaining nesting sites, except Calabria, were subsequently colonised as the population expanded. The populations nesting in Eastern Turkey and Western Greece settled ca. 30,000years ago (10,000–100,000), whereas the remaining populations originated as a result of a more recent Holocenic expansion. As Calabria presented a unique Atlantic haplotype, found nowhere else in the Mediterranean, we consider this nesting site as the result of an independent colonisation event from the Atlantic and not the recent spread of Mediterranean populations. This reveals that the current genetic structure of C. caretta rookeries in the Mediterranean would be the result of at least two colonisation events from the Atlantic, the oldest one in Libya and a most recent in Calabria, combined with local extinctions during Pleistocenic glaciations and re-colonisations from glacial refugia in Libya, Eastern Turkey and Western Greece. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of different well-tested conservation techniques in an effort to successfully protect sea turtle nests. From an eight-year study on the island of Zakynthos, West Greece, we have experimentally investigated the effectiveness of two different conservation techniques applied to loggerhead sea turtle nests and provided statistical measures to evaluate their conservation value. The categories of nests evaluated include: (i) nests incubated in situ, (ii) translocated into a beach hatchery, or (iii) protected by metal cages. Results of the analysis showed significant interannual variations in hatching success as obtained for each one of the three groups of nests. Significant differences were also observed when comparing hatching success data among the three groups of nests during the eight-year period. Overall, our results indicate that relocation of nests laid at highly threatened locations and the placement of protective cages on nests in situ provide adequate conservation measures that could allow an increase in hatchling production; although their choice and application should be based on the specific conditions and threats of each nest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]