Eighteen thousand visitors to Crama, the marine animal recovery center of the Asinara National Park which records record numbers in the period May-October 2023. Of these, around two thousand are students who landed on the island to participate in summer camps or to take part to environmental education laboratories.
«The structure which in 17 years has taken care of 150 sea turtles, mostly belonging to the Caretta caretta species - explains Laura Pireddu, one of the managers of Crama -, offers a veterinary room complete with operating room, dark room, radiological equipment digital which makes it possible to develop radiographs to which the animal is subjected". Born in 2006, the Center began operating at the Sea Observatory in 2012, a clinic located in Cala Reale with adequate spaces, two rooms equipped with three modular tanks each for the hospitalization of animals in need of care. «Most of the turtles hospitalized, on average about ten per year», adds Laura Pireddu «are seriously injured due to the impact with fishing tools or boats, or debilitated due to the ingestion of microplastics present in the sea». This often involves a very long period of hospitalization and it is therefore necessary to carry out rehabilitation before being able to release the animals back into nature in areas suitable for their survival. From this arose the need to identify a stretch of sea that could serve as an area for the rehabilitation of sea turtle individuals. The stretch of sea identified for this purpose is the one in front of the structure at the pier of the same name, with a surface area of 485 m2. and about 100 meters away from the designated rooms. This stretch of sea is renamed "Turtle Bay". The last specimen was baptized with the name Elda (which means "battle"), the only sea turtle present in the structure and the only one found beached in Asinara, the first without two limbs to receive the care of the Centre, therefore it also represents an interesting case study on the resistance of these animals.
