Asinara, a hook in the esophagus: Raffaele the turtle rescued
The animal found in the waters of Castelsardo by a fishing boat
The Saturno fishing boat owned by the Porto Torres owner Riccardo Rum has recovered in the waters of Castelsardo, inside the train, a specimen of the Caretta caretta sea turtle. The port authorities were immediately notified and asked for the intervention of the Crama Asinara experts to admit the animal to the Cala Reale recovery center.
The Caretta, weighing 28 kilos, was called "Raffaele" after the son of the fisherman who found it. The animal has a hook in the esophagus that will be extracted in the next few days. The rest of the sanitary conditions appear good with the parameters in the norm.
Currently there are three other examples of Caretta caretta in the center of Asinara, two of which are close to returning to the open sea. "The intervention demonstrates once again how much the life of marine animals is at risk due to the effects linked to humans - underline the Crama operators -, in particular most of those recovered present problems of ingestion of floating plastic fragments in the sea that they mistake for food ".
The Caretta caretta species in the Mediterranean is classified as “endangered” in the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and a priority species according to the Habitat Directive, therefore it needs particular attention from the conservation point of view.