Preprint volume - SIBM

Pre-print Volume - Posters
VARIOUS TOPICS
Fig. 1 – Percentage of occurrence of each category of food/debris found in 22 C. caretta specimens.
Percentuale di frequenza di ogni categoria di cibo/detrito presente nei 22 campioni di C.
caretta.
Conclusions – Transparent and white soft plastic debris was present in almost all C.
caretta fecal pellets in agreement with findings of stomach content analysis (Tomás et
al., 2001). This type of debris is particularly dangerous for turtles, causing gut air
clogging and buoyancy impairment. Moreover, soft plastic slows down nutrient gain in
gut and growth (Hutchinson & Simmonds, 1991). Fish appeared to be the most preyed
food. Sargassum sp. was also frequent in fecal pellets showing that the origin of
sample population was probably in an optimal post-hatching habitat of Sargassum
beds. Location of this habitat and distance from the Sicily Channel should be
investigated in relation to swimming speed and telemetry studies. In conclusion this
preliminary results showed how fecal pellets analysis could be good indicator of
loggerhead sea turtle ecology and a mean to assess its conservation status. The ongoing
analysis of the whole fecal pellet (60 ind.) belonging to Hydrosphera collection will
allow to statistically compare diet of C. caretta among years and specimens size/age in
order to confirm our first conclusions.
References
FRICK M.G., WILLIAMS K.L., BOLTEN A.B., BJORNDAL K.A., MARTINS H.R. (2009) –
Foraging ecolology of oceanic-stage loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta. Endang. Species Res., 9:
91-97.
HUTCHINSON J., SIMMONDS M. (1991) – A review of the effects of pollution on marine turtles.
In: Thames Polytechnic (eds), A Greenpeace Ecotoxicology Project. London: 27 pp.
TOMÁS J., GUITART R, MATEO R., RAGA J.A. (2002) – Marine debris ingestion in loggerhead
sea turtles Caretta caretta, from the Western Mediterranean. Mar. Poll. Bull., 44: 211-216.
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