57 turtle eggs hatched out last week from an unrecorded second nest at Ramla Bay in Gozo, Nature Trust Malta has said.

It explained that although a turtle was seen some 55 days before moving on shore and leaving in a short time, volunteers searched and could not find a nest site, and assumed it had not laid eggs.

After 3 days from the first sighting of hatchlings the nest was dug out in the presence of ERA officials and vet Dr Gruppetta to assess the number of eggs and success rate, NTM said.

Nature Trust Malta went on to say that this nest had a low success rate of 57% with 57 eggs found as hatched and 44 eggs were found unhatched.

“It is not known if the 57 all made it to sea as this nest was unrecorded as some might have fallen victim to `ghost crabs,’ that are found at Ramla Bay.

In early August, another nest at Ramla which was recorded, saw 62 hatchlings emerge and enter the sea. This was the first recorded and confirmed next in Gozo after 70 years.

Photographs – NTM

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