eea flag

Marine turtles have survived on Earth for more than 200 million years, and today seven species of marine turtles inhabit the world's oceans. . In Europe, turtles can be primarily found in the Mediterranean Sea, where the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting populations are considered as indigenous.

According to the Habitats Directive data from the 2007-2012 reporting period, 60% of reports showed unfavourable status and 40% unknown for the loggerhead and green turtle in the Mediterranean region (to be updated with the data from the 2013-2018 period). Marine turtles have not been observed in the Baltic Sea and are very rare visitors to the Black Sea.

Descriptor 1: Biodiversity is maintained
Descriptor 1: Biodiversity is maintained
The quality and occurrence of habitats and the distribution and abundance of species are in line with prevailing physiographic, geographic and climatic conditions.

General outcomes of the regional assessments

Outcomes from the MSFD assessments

In 2018, Member States had to update the Good Environmental Status (GES) assessments performed under Marine Strategy Framework Directive Article 8. The present dashboard displays the overall status reported by countries for the features, where the results show which is the percentage of assessments where GES has been achieved, not achieved or is unknown or not assessed.

Refereces

  1. Casale, P. and Margaritoulis, D., 2010, Sea turtles in the Mediterranean: Distribution, threats and conservation priorities., IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
    ↵
  2. Lazar, B., Gračan, R., Katić, J., Zavodnik, D., Jaklin, A. and Tvrtković, N., 2011, 'Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) as bioturbators in neritic habitats: an insight through the analysis of benthic molluscs in the diet', Marine Ecology 32(1), pp. 65–74.
    ↵
  3. Bjorndal, R. and Jackson, J., 2002, 'Roles of sea turtles in marine ecosystems: Reconstructing the past', in: The Biology of Sea Turtles Volume II, CRC Marine Biology Series,CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida (USA), pp. 259–273.
    ↵
  4. OSPAR Commission, 2019. List of Threatened and/or Declining Species & Habitats (https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/bdc/species-habitats/list-of-threatened-declining-species-habitats)
    ↵
  5. Broderick AC, Coyne MS, Fuller WJ, Glen F. & Godley BJ. 2007. Fidelity and overwintering of sea turtles. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B Biological Sciences, 274, 1533–1538.
    ↵
  6. Stokes KL, Broderick AC, Canbolat AF, Candan O, Fuller WJ, Glen F, Godley BJ. 2015. Migratory corridors and foraging hotspots: critical habitats identified for Mediterranean green turtles. Diversity and Distributions.
    ↵
  7. Margaritoulis D, Teneketzis K. 2003. Identification of a developmental habitat of the green turtle in Lakonikos Bay, Greece. In First Mediterranean Conference on Marine Turtles (Margaritoulis D & Demetropoulos A eds) Barcelona Convention - Bern Convention - Bonn Convention (CMS), Rome, pp 170-175.
    ↵