The Caretta caretta turtle nests in Pianosa

The summer of 2024 witnessed The Island of Pianosa becoming a special shelter for the Caretta caretta marine turtles, that chose Cala Giovanna beach to lay their eggs in six different nests. The 21st of August was the start of the eggs hatching, a big moment that brought a tiny army of baby turtles to the light, ready to shuffle along the sand to then plunge into the crystal clear water in Pianosa.

The story of these six different nests was a combination of surprises, defeats and minor disappointments, as if to prove how unexpected the process of building a nest can be for these extraordinary creatures. From the first nest 12 tiny turtles emerged out of a total of 60 eggs that had been laid. Some of the eggs contained a tiny turtle that, sad to say, didn't quite manage to hatch.

While out of the fourth nest< one, sole turtle came to the light eggs that had been laid. It was the third nest that gave us one of the biggest surprises, with 100 baby turtlesfrom 124 eggs.

At the same time, the fifth nest too turned out to be very determined with 92 baby turtles born out of 105 eggs, among which 11 were still alive in the nest 17 days after the first one to hatch. From the strong>second and from the sixth nest on the other hand,   the number of eggs laid reached a record but unfortunately with an extremely low birth rate. From the second nest, out of 132 eggs laid, not even one baby turtle was born.In the sixthnest out of 135 eggs laid, record for the Tuscan Archipelago, 133 eggs remained intact without hatching. Only 2 baby turtles  managed to reach the sea protected by Pianosa.

In total, in 6 Pianosa sea turtle nests 866 eggs were laid while only 209 hatched; some of the nests had an extremely high birth rate while with others it was low while in other nests no eggs hatched at all. The late nests were a surprise because they usually contain fewer eggs, but strangely enough there the eggs laid reached a record number but among those that hatched the number of births was extremely low.