Over 700 Caretta caretta nests on our beaches in 2025 alone: this is the extraordinary result for these beautiful sea turtles, particularly subject to the impact of man. But climate changes have also influenced the result, making the beaches more “attractive” for the species.
Tireless work by researchers and volunteers
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The result, certainly a success, is largely the result of the tireless work of researchers dedicated to monitoring and protecting nests, but also of volunteers from various associations, some of which coordinated by the LIFE Turtlenest project, which officially began on 9 January 2023 and will end on 8 April 2028, led by Legambiente and various partners from Spain, France and Italy (including ISPRA).
New historical record for sea turtles in Italy! – writes Legambiente in a post on Instagram – In 2025, over 700 Caretta caretta nests were registered along our coasts, recording a +60% compared to 2023 and a new maximum ever recorded!
The regions that recorded the highest number of nestings, in particular, are Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Puglia (as was actually predictable).
But we can’t stop here. Now the priority is to give stable legal protection to the new “hot” beaches for reproduction: this is why we ask the Regions and competent bodies to extend and establish new Natura 2000 Sites to protect these precious places. Only in this way can we transform this extraordinary success into a story of lasting resilience
Climate changes
Climate change, however, has also played a role. As reported on a study conducted by the University of Palermo and published last April on Ecology and Evolution, global warming has made some beaches even more suitable along the northern coast of Sicily.
The research, in particular, was conducted by collecting data from 1979 to 2022 on the species’ nests through various sources, including literature, monitoring records of the WWF Turtle Project, reports of infestations of local fauna, online articles, references on websites and social networks often related to monitoring activities, using a GIS to create distribution maps.
In this way, the researchers updated and established a complete list of nesting sites in Sicily and its smaller islands, investigated the distribution and environmental suitability of nesting Caretta caretta sea turtles in Sicily.
At the same time, they downloaded the bioclimatic indicators via the Copernicus Climate Change Serviceprojected the predictors onto the dataset of WorldClimand thus created environmental suitability distribution models (SDMs) with the software MaxEnt. Finally, the distribution map of Caretta caretta nests and the environmental suitability map were superimposed on the map of Natura 2000 sites in Sicily.
The results confirmed that the main nesting areas are mainly concentrated along the southern and eastern coasts of Sicily, with increasing numbers observed in recent years. And also that, yes, global warming has made some beaches even more “attractive”, especially along the northern coast of the main island.
The demographic increase in nesting events in Sicily is also induced by a northward shift in the distribution of the species, driven in turn by the increase in temperatures and probably due to climate change.
The news, therefore, is certainly wonderful for the species, but some might say that all that glitters is not gold.
Sources: Legambiente/Instagram / Ecology and Evolution
