March 3rd, 2022 - The turtles are being looked after at the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre on Lošinj

The mighty bura wind is known to sow chaos on the Croatian coast, but not often do we hear about it leaving several confused visitors washed ashore.

In the last few days, strong north-eastern wind blew with a strength of over 30 knots on Lošinj island. Locals spotted a large loggerhead turtle stranded in the port of Veli Lošinj town, and informed the Blue World Institute of the sighting.

Two younger and smaller turtles were also spotted floating in the port as the first one was being rescued by the institute employees. All three were admitted to the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre on Lošinj and were provided with the necessary care, announced the Blue World Institute.

Adverse weather conditions interrupted their hibernation process, and as they were stunned by the cold, the turtles were not able to dive and ended up disoriented in the port of Veli Lošinj.

The three turtles have been named Bura, Veli and Saturn, and are now being looked after at the rescue centre. Once the sea temperature has risen sufficiently, they'll be released back into the sea.

Photos: Blue World Institute / Sara Širola

As Morski writes on the 28th of March, 2019, this weekend, the island of Murter will host the first of two sets of field work of Zagreb veterinary students within the "Blue Project - Contribution to the development of the DKU Program at VFZS" project, carried out by the Argonaut association in partnership with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb, as well as the Pula Marine Education Centre.

The implementation of the project started back in April 2018, and the purpose of the project is to give the Zagreb veterinary students a chance to engage in socially beneficial marine environment conservation projects. Through the projects within the classes, and in cooperation with various civil society organisations, students will learn to properly identify the needs of the community and through the courses they undertake, develop potential solutions - projects that will see them engaged in the local community, according to a report from SibenikIN.

Within this concrete project, the topics that are likely among the most interesting to the Zagreb veterinary students will be the methods and ways of monitoring populations and providing treatment to the Adriatic's protected marine animals, such as sea turtles and dolphins.

In addition to Murter, students will also visit Pula and the Marine Education Center at the Pula Aquarium in mid-April this year.

Students will develop their projects through selected mentoring programs which include but aren't limited to visiting habitats during the winter months and learning how to properly aid a sea turtle who has become too cold, learning about the friendly behaviour of sea turtles and dolphins, what to do when coming across a sick or injured dolphin or sea turtle, and what the procedure is should a dead dolphin or sea turtle be discovered.

At the workshop in Murter, the thematic workshop will focus on dolphins and students will be educated on the development of monitoring protocols, recording the occurrence of protected marine animals - dates, times, geographical positions, the number of animals, their ages, their conditions and the level of potential human impact (maritime traffic, tourism and fishing), as well as the basics of photographing these types of protected marine species.

The project aimed at the Zagreb veterinary students and their further education will go on for eighteen months, more specifically until October 2019, and is co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) in the amount of 854,018,21 kuna, with a total value of 1,004,727.31 kuna. The project leader is the Argonaut association from Murter, and the partners of the project are the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb and the Pula Marine Centre. The project is being implemented in the area of Šibenik-Knin County, Zagrebačka, and Istria County.

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Click here for the original article by SibenikIN

But could they keep up?

More than 5.000 specimens of the endangered species fall victim to fishing tools in the Adriatic each year