scholarly journals Sea turtle strandings, sightings and accidental catch along the Croatian Adriatic coast

Author(s):  
FEITOUMATT LEMATT HAMA ◽  
DEAN KARAICA ◽  
BOJAN KARAICA ◽  
PETRA RODIĆ ◽  
KATJA JELIĆ ◽  
...  

The northern Adriatic Sea has long been known as the foraging and developmental habitat of loggerhead sea turtles. Previous literature on stranded, floating, sighted, and accidentally caught sea turtles is fragmentary and mainly obtained from this shallower northern part. This work presents data on 272 records of stranded, floating, sighted and accidentally captured turtles within the entire Croatian Adriatic. The data was collected through the national stranding network for strictly protected marine species run by the Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature during a six-year period (2010-2015). We focused on analysing spatial and temporal observations, age structure, and reporting sources. The collected morphometric data revealed that most measured C. caretta (85%) were immature individuals found stranded and floating at sea. These observations were location-dependent with a tendency towards the shallow northern areas (≤200 m). Most of the stranded individuals were severely decomposed preventing the determination of possible mortality causes. Most non-decomposed individuals had fishery- or boat-inflicted mechanical injuries confirming fishing activities and boat collisions as threats to young C. caretta individuals in the Croatian Adriatic Sea. Results also revealed an important contribution of local people in reporting the C. caretta strandings and sightings whereas most accidentally caught individuals were reported by unknown sources. Altogether, the data presented in this paper indicate possibilities for improving the ongoing sea turtle monitoring and conservation activities along the entire Croatian Adriatic coast.

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-268
Author(s):  
Draško Holcer ◽  
◽  
Jure Miočić-Stošić ◽  
Tihana Vučur Blazinić ◽  
◽  
...  

In spring 2021, four unusual encounters with a group of false killer whales were recorded in Kvarner Bay, Northern Adriatic Sea. A minimum of five individuals, including a calf, were observed and two photos were taken corroborating species identification. These are the first reported sightings of the species in the Adriatic Sea since the mid-twentieth century. In addition, another encounter was revealed that occurred at the end of the 2000s in the same location and should be added to the list of historic observations. These reports were obtained by chance and show the importance of citizen science in obtaining data on rare marine species. The information gathered goes towards a better understanding of the distribution of the species in the Mediterranean Sea.


The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1801-1817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara-Maria Schnedl ◽  
Alexandra Haselmair ◽  
Ivo Gallmetzer ◽  
Anna-Katharina Mautner ◽  
Adam Tomašových ◽  
...  

The effects of and the interplay between natural and anthropogenic influences on the composition of benthic communities over long time spans are poorly understood. Based on a 160-cm-long sediment core collected at 44 m water depth in the NE Adriatic Sea (Brijuni Islands, Croatia), we document changes in molluscan communities since the Holocene transgression ~11,000 years ago and assess how they were shaped by environmental changes. We find that (1) a transgressive lag deposit with a mixture of terrestrial and marine species contains abundant seagrass-associated gastropods and epifaunal suspension-feeding bivalves, (2) the maximum-flooding phase captures the establishment of epifaunal bivalve-dominated biostromes in the photic zone, and (3) the highstand phase is characterized by increasing infaunal suspension feeders and declining seagrass-dwellers in bryozoan-molluscan muddy sands. Changes in the community composition between the transgressive and the highstand phase can be explained by rising sea level, reduced light penetration, and increase in turbidity, as documented by the gradual up-core shift from coarse molluscan skeletal gravel with seagrass-associated molluscs to bryozoan sandy muds. In the uppermost 20 cm (median age <200 years), however, epifaunal and grazing species decline and deposit-feeding and chemosymbiotic species increase in abundance. These changes concur with rising concentrations of nitrogen and organic pollutants due to the impact of eutrophication, pollution, and trawling in the 20th century. The late highstand benthic assemblages with abundant bryozoans, high molluscan diversity, and abundance of soft-bottom epi- and infaunal filter feeders and herbivores represent the circalittoral baseline community largely unaffected by anthropogenic impacts.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1408
Author(s):  
Antonino Gentile ◽  
Tullia Amato ◽  
Andrea Gustinelli ◽  
Maria Letizia Fioravanti ◽  
Delia Gambino ◽  
...  

We provide new data on the presence of helminth parasites in 64 individual loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta stranded along the coasts of Sicily and the northwest Adriatic Sea between June 2014 and August 2016. The necropsy examination revealed 31 individuals (48.4%) positive for endoparasites, showing a greater prevalence of trematodes than nematodes. In particular, seven species and a single genus of Trematoda (Hapalotrema) and a single species and genus of Nematoda (Kathlania) were identified. Among the Digenea flukes the species with the highest prevalence of infection were Rhytidodes gelatinosus (34.6%) and Hapalotrema sp. (33.3%), while among the Nematoda they were Kathlania sp. (33.3%) and Sulcascaris sulcata (33.3%). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied among the recovery sites of the stranded loggerhead sea turtles and prevalence of endoparasites was used to highlight any relationship between the parasites and the origin of the hosts. ANOVA showed significant differences (p < 0.001) among the data used.


2012 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. De Vittor ◽  
J. Faganeli ◽  
A. Emili ◽  
S. Covelli ◽  
S. Predonzani ◽  
...  

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