Nesting was confirmed for the first time for loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta in Albanian beaches.
Health evaluation was conducted to 357 turtles found bycaught in stavniks and other fishing gears or stranded along the coastline. The protocol used for the health status determination and first aid was the one prepared by a previous project HAS implemented during October 2012- February 2016 named NETCET. This protocol name is: First Aid and Management Procedures of the Sea Turtles. All the turtles evaluated as inured or with other health issues are transported to the Patok RFAC where the first aid was provided.
226 out of 357 turtles studied by the HAS team during the implementation of this project were evaluated as healthy and had no missing legs, wounds or other fresh or recuperated injuries, while 120 had fresh or under recuperation injures.
210 turtles studied during the lifetime of this project had no tag deployed. This makes 58.8% of the population studied, which is a large percentage and tell the need for future monitoring of the population to better understand their biology and ecology in our region.
The highest number of remigrants was encountered in June?August period and the highest number of remigrants were the one tagged during the last couple of years (2017 and 2016). This together with the recapture data tells the presence of the turtles in the area for longer than one season, and the importance of the Albanian foraging grounds, mainly Drini bay, for the conservation of these specimens.
Awareness rase of the coastal communities is a key cmponnent for turle conservation since this community is in a constant contact with the turtles. Meetings with fishermen from Drini bay, Durres, Divjake and Vlore were organized. It is estimated a total of 885 individual reached through meeting and the leafltes distributed in the coastal areas.