National Park Asinara and the activity with turists

The campaign of information and awareness for tourists and local populations

A massive awareness-raising activity was held last March 31 by the CRAMA Asinara operators.

As part of the day dedicated to cleaning Asinara coasts, school groups, tourists and volunteers visited the rescue center marine animals and participated in outreach activities issued by the rescue center staff.

Visitors were informed about the issues related to the conservation of sea turtles and on the activities carried out with Tartalife project and its purpose.

The general public's curiosity turned into enthusiasm among younger visitors through direct contact with the sea turtles rescued at the center.

Currently the center hosts five specimens of Caretta caretta, three of which were on public display: Gigliola, a turtle 20 kg recovered in Alghero area following ingestion of plastics; Atlantik, 8 kg recovered with the carapace damaged by a propeller of a vessel; Lia, weighing 10 kg, finished in the bag of a trawl and delivered by fishermen to the CRAMA staff.

Further activities are planned for the summer season. Some specimens guests of the center are indeed fully recovered and will be released into the wild during the days dedicated to the preservation of biodiversity.

objective

reduction of sea turtle mortality in the professional fishing

project in brief

The conservation of Caretta caretta, a priority species included in App. II/IV of the Habitat Directive and protected in various international Conventions, has been representing a strategic issue for the whole Mediterranean basin, with professional fishing being the main threat for the survival of marine turtles: every year about 130000 turtles can be accidentally caught accidentally in the Mediterranean.

The project TartaLife, involving all 15 Italian regions overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, aims at reducing:
- bycatches caused by pelagic longline, bottom trawl and fixed nets by disseminating technical innovations of the fishing gears;
- post-capture mortality through trainings for fishermen and strengthening the marine turtles First Aid/Rescue Centres

TartaLife project

Life+ programme

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental policy and legislation by co-financing pilot or demonstration projects with European added value.

LIFE began in 1992 and to date there have been four complete phases of the programme (LIFE I: 1992-1995, LIFE II: 1996-1999, LIFE III: 2000-2006 and LIFE+: 2007-2013). During this period, LIFE has co-financed some 3954 projects across the EU, contributing approximately €3.1 billion to the protection of the environment.

Life+ programme