"LOST
AN ALMOST EXTINCT SAMPLE"
Be able to always admire ago
the beauty and the charm of a turtle of sea a strange effect!
Unfortunately that that we have seen us to Scilla was by now
without life. The poveretta was a sample of the kind Caretta
caretta, the common sea turtle. Our sea has had the fortune
to entertain in its waters a sample of a kind that is by now
to the limit of the extinction. But luckily the projects for
its safeguard are receiving many consents. The turtle is easily
a recognizable animal: all it takes is looking at his curious
and protective "cottage": the CARAPACE. His "cottage"
it is formed from two pieces: the ventral piastrone and the
carapace dorsale,ches protect the trunk. Carapace and piastrone
are settled to the two sides by a bony bridge. Our sample
was a young individual and enough "piccolo":pensate
some that adults exist in which the diameter of the carapace
overcomes the 135 cms and the weight reaches the 370 kgs around!!!
Practically, Alfina to comparison is a formichetta!!! The
head of these animals is great and the limbs are very developed,
kind the anteriori,es provided of 2 fingernails in the young
individuals, that reduce him to one in the adults. The young
people introduce a dorsal hull indented that he/she confers
an aspect of "back to saw." The male distinguishes
him from the female in how much it is more piccolo,has the
longest tail and the fingernails of the back limbs more developed.
The sea turtle, thanks to their flat legs to form of shovel,
I am formidable rematrici, able to reach to swimming speed
of 20 km/hs. On the earth, instead they don't reach, really
the record of good runners, but they don't even get the medal
for the set cent!!! But to win this medal for them is not
really necessary, because don't need to be fast on the earth,
but…. Caretta caretta in sea is a hard-working migratory.
You/he/she can cross cento…mille…duemila km. But even diecimila!
And him, of diecimila km has been the trip crossed in 4 years
by a turtle, from the gulf of Mexico up to the waters of Puglia!!
A group of fishermen found this turtle "traveller"
wound in the Jonio Sea, to the extreme southern point of Puglia.
It was marked, it had a metallic wrapper and they discovered
that you/he/she had been born in 1981 along the coasts of
the Florida. After having lived 2 years in an institute of
search, you/he/she was freed in the Gulf of Mexico. I have
to say that has been a big beautiful trip! Who knows if together
with her there was some friend of his! It is not sure to 100%
that it was in a group, generally the sea turtle are solitary,
but they gather him during the reproductive season to migrate
toward almost uninhabited beaches. I am in fact ovipare and
they exclusively come to earth to depose the eggs. The ovodeposizione
takes place every 2-3 years, of rule at the end of June, generally
in the evening, at night or to the dawn. The hole, in which
the eggs are deposed, has been deep since 40 to the 75 cms
and wide around 20-30 cms. Are deposed by 60 to 200 eggs in
a hour!! The tiny ones are born after 6-8 weeks and they immediately
migrate toward the sea. Have a carapace of "alone"
5 cms! The areas of origin of this kind go from the Mediterranean
to the Atlantic ocean, Pacific and Indian, to the tropical
and subtropical seas. Alive well in warm or moderate waters,
few deep with weak tightened correnti,negli and in proximity
of groups of islands. The meat of the sea turtle is edible
and, "they say" (I have ever tasted her and I don't
sincerely have intention to do him/it!) of good taste, and
also very particular, probably due to the presence of the
algas in their feeding, even if the turtle are not alone vegetarian…
they know something shellfishes and molluscs!!! Our trip to
the discovery of Caretta caretta ends here for now, but doesn't
end here the emotion that it arouses, the charm that it he
brings behind, the shine of the picccolis that move the first
footsteps toward the sea life… Who knows if our turtle are
also of the explorers!! Once you return in theirs "native
countries" they will tell their adventures to their friends,
they will speak of the lived dangers, of the particular meetings,
even with some exemplary strange that wore mask, fins and
cylinder (certain, if someone will surely meet Mario it will
tell to have seen a strange sea monster!!!). They will perhaps
say that the Mediterranean Sea is still a splendid sea, that
contains intact beauties and ruins of ancient cities and ancient
people. But surely their greater desire is that actual people
can always taste of it and to respect its beauty, because
the world "you/he/she has not been given by our fathers
there, but received in loan by our children." Maria Assume
Menniti (CZ)
