Mojácar Council, in collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía, the Andaluz Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, as well as the Seville Aquarium, organised a day to support marine turtles in the municipality.

Mojácar Council has joined the awareness-raising campaign “Here we save turtles”, an initiative that aims to inform everyone about how to act when they find a marine turtle on our coastline.
Hence, and fitting in with future actions planned by the local authority, the Playa del Lance beach was the setting for the installation of a large stand with educational material, where specialists in the care and conservation of turtles explained all aspects related to these creatures: from their habits and morphology to how to act correctly for their protection, whether it is when finding a nest or an injured turtle.
Many bathers, children and adults went over to be informed and to listen to the experts’ explanations. Also there were the Mojácar Mayor, Francisco García Cerdá, the Environment Councillor, Sergio Alonso, and the Tourism Councillor, María Gracia Alarcón, who were able to talk about the action protocols in the event of sightings and how the local authority can collaborate on the protection of this marine species and be prepared with a joint action protocol.
A matter on which the whole corporation is very aware, as the important campaign running throughout the summer for good practices in the environment and sustainability demonstrates. A campaign and actions which will be carried out throughout the year and in the different sectors involved.
It would not be the first time the marine turtle chooses the beaches of Mojácar to nest. Last year, in June 2022, 20 small loggerhead turtles that were born in the municipality were returned to the sea. The turtle’s footprints in the sand were spotted by a resident, who alerted 112, deploying a whole protection and rescue network.
The laying season goes from June to the end of August and the incubation period is about 45 days. The most common is the loggerhead sea turtle.
The protocol when a nest is detected is to protect the area and monitor it, looking at the ambient temperature as it determines the sex of the turtles: at more than 25º only females are born, from which it follows that global warming could be a threat to their survival.
Given this circumstance, the specialists decide whether to collect some eggs and incubate them in a specialised centre in order to later release them when they are of a size that allows then a higher survival rate, and in the area where the nest was found. This means an increase in survival of more than 60% of the nest.