The local police have marked out the area where they found the nest, very close to the shore
A loggerhead turtle lays eggs on Poniente beach in Benidorm
The 28 eggs laid by the turtle will be incubated at Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology
A loggerhead turtle has laid its eggs this morning on Benidorm's Poniente beach. This event occurred early in the morning and was witnessed by several people who were walking along the beach and notified the local police.
The 28 eggs laid by the specimen have travelled to Valencia to be incubated at the facilities of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of the UV, according to the mayor, Toni Pérez, and the Councillor for the Environment and Beaches, Mónica Gómez.
The mayor stressed that "it is rare for turtles to choose urban beaches like ours to lay their eggs, so what happened today is a special event and hence the great expectation it has aroused among beach users throughout the morning." The Councillor for Environment, Infrastructure and Territory, Vicente Martínez, who visited the city today and went to the beach to watch the egg extraction process live with the Mayor and the Councillor, has also been affected by this expectation and interest.
The Councillor recalled that this morning at around 07.30 the Local Police received a report of the presence of a large turtle on Poniente beach that was presumably laying eggs. After completing the laying of eggs, the loggerhead turtle, whose scientific name is caretta carretta, returned to the sea.
As soon as they received the report from several beach users who witnessed the laying of eggs, the Environment and Beach units of the Local Police and the rural guard of Benidorm City Council went to the scene, immediately marking the nest made by the turtle a few metres from the shore.
The usual protocol in these cases has been automatically activated, with technical personnel from l’Ocenaogràfic and the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Valencia going to Benidorm to recover the eggs deposited by the turtle in its nest. The eggs will be incubated at the latter’s facilities. Once they hatch, the specimens will be released into the sea.
