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The first documented record of green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, in the eastern Adriatic Sea

The green turtle Chelonia mydas is one of two species of sea turtles that reproduce in the Mediterranean basin, with the major nesting areas in Turkey and Cyprus. At present, only 339-360 females nest annually in all Mediterranean beaches, making it the most endangered green turtle population in the world. The green turtle is considered rare in the Adriatic Sea, with the first literature information in the eastern Adriatic dated from the 19th century. It was listed in the Catalogue of Amphibians and Reptiles of the Croatian Natural History Museum (CNHM) and included in the indexes of the fauna of the Adriatic countries. The data presented are based upon inspection of museum collections, literature and our records. Re-identification of all documented records of green turtles in Croatia showed misidentification with large loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) with the carapace length of 63.0-81.4 cm. The reason for this misidentification most likely lies in the old Croatian name for C. mydas: “ the huge (big) turtle” . As most of loggerheads that frequent Adriatic Sea are juveniles, it seems that any “ big” loggerheads were automatically and erroneously identified as C. mydas. We recovered a dead juvenile green turtle entangled in the gill net, 1 km east from the City of Trpanj, Pelješac Peninsula, Croatia, on the 4th December 2001. As green turtle has not yet been recorded in Slovenia, Montenegro and Albania, and as all of the original identifications of species in Croatia turned out to be wrong wherever we could perform re-identification, the green turtle captured in Trpanj is the first certain record of this species in the eastern Adriatic Sea. The taxidermy of this turtle is kept in the Herpetological Collection of the CNHM in Zagreb. Currently there have been only twelve green turtles recorded in the Adriatic Sea. The majority of records refer to juveniles with a carapace length of 28-40 cm, recovered in the southern Adriatic. It is possible that this region contains pelagic habitats for green turtle ; therefore it is important to promote the education of fishermen along the southern Adriatic coasts to identify and report recoveries of this critically endangered species.

sea turtles; distribution; marine habitats; Mediterranean

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