The island hospital is small, sparsely equipped and very often the patients are so large that they have to be tipped sideways to get them to the operating table. Fortunately, the patients are tough enough to withstand being knocked against a doorframe -- they are protected by a solid shell bigger than a manhole cover.
LAMPEDUSA, Italy — The island hospital is small, sparsely equipped and very often the patients are so large that they have to be tipped sideways to get them to the operating table.
Fortunately, the patients are tough enough to withstand being knocked against a doorframe -- they are protected by a solid shell bigger than a manhole cover.
It takes more than rough handling to kill off a loggerhead turtle.
Tough they may be, but the species is endangered because of the destruction of its breeding grounds -- the once isolated beaches which are increasingly built-up and disturbed -- and the fishing fleets that catch or drown them by mistake.
Only a couple of turtles now come each year to lay eggs on Lampedusa, Italy's most southerly island. But hundreds more are found injured in the area and the lucky ones make it to the turtle hospital to be cured and studied by volunteer vets and curious zoologists.
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"They are not physically beautiful," says Daniela Freggi who established the WWF (the former World Wildlife Fund) turtle sanctuary in the 1990s after previously having worked with dolphins.
"At first, turtles weren't interesting. They didn't laugh, they didn't talk." But Freggi grew to be fascinated by the carnivores which can live their solitary lives to be from 50 to 100 years old and migrate thousands of miles through the oceans.
"They live for years, they don't get on with each other, they can withstand huge injuries and then die for nothing."
ONE EYE GONE
The turtle refuge is temporary home to up to 500 turtles each year. They are kept in a collection of large tanks in the grounds of a former pizzeria, shaded by date palms.
Most of the injured animals have been caught by baited fishing lines which were meant to snare swordfish or tuna.
If the hooks -- which can be up to 2 inches long -- are stuck in the head, they are removed. If the turtle has swallowed the hook, it may pass through the animal's digestive tract or it might have to be cut out by a surgeon.
Freggi and a couple of young volunteers heave one of the patients out of its tank, spraying water in a wide arc.
"This one was here four years ago," Freggi says, pointing to the metal identification tag which hospital staff always attach to a fin before releasing the animals back into the sea.
Since its last visit, the turtle's shell has grown 6 inches to be 22 inches long, but its right eye has been gouged out, probably by a fishing hook which has left a long scar across the leathery skin of its face.
The assistants -- biology students doing a summer internship -- pull a turtle out of a neighboring tank. From its anus protrudes a knotted strand of yellow nylon cord -- the end of an estimated 16 feet 5 inches) of fishing line it has swallowed.
"Ninety-nine percent of deaths are caused by the nylon -- it blocks up into a clump inside and kills them," says Freggi as she gently pulls at the cord. "We have to be careful not to cut it up," she said.
AMBASSADORS
Michael White, a marine zoologist from Ireland's Cork University, has taken up residence at the turtle refuge as it provides him a unique view of the animals which are only usually seen when mature females crawl onto beaches to lay eggs.
"These are enigmatic, mysterious animals.
"We know pretty much every nesting beach on the planet but we don't know where they are for 90 percent of their lives. That's why I am here.
"Ninety percent of research is done on the beaches, that means it's always females that are 40 to 50 years old. All of these here are juveniles."
White is fascinated by the turtles' behavior patterns from when they hatch from eggs just 1 inch long, through thousands of miles of migrations guided by a homing pigeon-style sense of the Earth's magnetic field.
He studies the animals in their tanks and dives with them in the sea. He has also tracked them using electronic tags.
"They used to be tracked by attaching a helium balloon to them and following it by boat. Now we use satellite trackers."
Aside from the medical treatment and scientific research, the refuge has a third role -- to spark public interest in the fragile species threatened by beach development and certain fishing practices.
"They are ambassadors for their species," says Freggi. While the public's love for "cuddly" dolphins has led to changes in fishing practices, she hopes greater awareness of turtles will afford them greater respect and protection.
"I see people approach them here and say: 'How beautiful' and I wonder why it took me so long to see them like that."
Source: Reuters
