Very special guests at the Cap Blanc Aquarium in Ibiza: the sea turtles from the es Cavallet nest

Cap Blanc Aquarium is currently hosting some very special guests. They are around twenty loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) from the nest documented on 7 August 2025 on es Cavallet beach, in the Ses Salines Natural Park. The specimens are part of the Balearic Islands’ Head Starting programme and are now in the pre-release phase. They are expected to return to the sea this week, after almost a year.

Despite the large space available to them at Cova de ses Llagostes, in the municipality of Sant Antoni, the turtles were gathered on Sunday in one of the channels leading out to the sea from this natural cave, guided by their instinct to swim towards open waters. They have undoubtedly been the main attraction in recent days for the aquarium’s youngest visitors, who reacted with surprise at seeing so many of them so close up.

The 85 eggs were transferred at the time to the Aula del Mar in Mallorca to be artificially incubated, according to information released then by the Directorate General for Natural Environment and Forest Management of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment. After almost two months of incubation, 38 hatchlings were born and were later taken to the Marine Research and Aquaculture Laboratory, IRFAP-LIMIA, in the Port of Andratx.

There, the Marine Fauna Department of the Consortium for the Recovery of Wildlife in the Balearic Islands, Cofib, carried out identification work, biometric measurements and health assessments. The specimens then entered the head starting programme, a technique that involves keeping turtles under controlled conditions for 10 or 12 months, feeding them in captivity and increasing their chances of survival before they are reintroduced into the wild.

Climate change

The director general for Natural Environment and Forest Management, Anna Torres, explained at the time that “climate change may be one of the reasons behind the change in the reproductive behaviour of the sea turtle, which is now nesting in the western Mediterranean. For that reason, we will have to normalise egg-laying on the coasts of the archipelago”.

The loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, is listed as a vulnerable species. Nesting on Spain’s Mediterranean coasts is becoming increasingly common, with nests recorded year after year since 2014. In a single clutch, a female can lay between 80 and 100 eggs. Even so, the species’ survival rate remains very low: it is estimated that only one in every thousand hatchlings reaches adulthood. For this reason, at the slightest sign of a nest on the beach, Emergencies 112 should be contacted so that the protection protocol can be activated.