Mahdia/Tunisia — Fourteen nests of loggerhead sea turtles, known as "Caretta Caretta", were discovered on Saturday on the beaches of El Ghadabna, El Manakaa and El Khamara in the Mahdia region (central-eastern Tunisia).

President of the association "Notre Grand Bleu", Ahmed Ghedira, said this discovery is of great ecological importance. "The main nesting and hatching sites for these turtles were the Kuriat Islands in Monastir. This proves that the beaches of Mahdia are also becoming popular nesting and hatching sites for this species," said Ghedira.

Ghedira emphasised the need to launch a media and awareness campaign aimed at the general public and the local authorities concerned in order to preserve the beaches and nesting and hatching sites of these turtles.

He pointed out that these beaches are already heavily polluted by waste, especially plastic.

He added that after the hatching process (50 days after the eggs are laid), an event should be held to release the baby turtles back into the sea.

The loggerhead turtle Caretta Caretta, the most common turtle in the Mediterranean, nests mainly on the beaches of Greece, Turkey, Libya and Cyprus.

Currently, studies based on the monitoring of various Mediterranean nesting sites estimate that approximately 7200 loggerhead nests and 1500 green turtle nests are deposited each year during the nesting season (Casale and Margaritoulis, 2010), according to a 2013 monitoring study by APAL and UNEP on "Nesting of the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta Caretta on the Kuriat Islands in Tunisia". However, this figure is not definitive as many beaches are not monitored or even known.