Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758)

Aidek, Ahmad E., Saad, Adib, Jablonski, Daniel, Esterbauer, Hans & Fritz, Uwe, 2024, Turtles and tortoises of Syria: Diversity, distribution, and conservation, Zootaxa 5506 (2), pp. 151-193 : 158

Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758)

Loggerhead Sea Turtle ( Fig. 5 )

IUCN Red List Category: Vulnerable (VU A2b); Mediterranean subpopulation: Least Concern (LC).

Type locality: “Insulas Americanas.” Restricted to “Mari Mediterraneo, Atlantico” by Schoepff (1793); to “ Bermuda Islands” by Smith & Taylor (1950a, 1950b); and to “ Bimini, British Bahamas ” by Schmidt (1953).

Type specimens: Unknown.

Chorotype: Circumglobal (Cosmopolitan).

First records for Syria: The rocky coasts of Syria ( Lortet 1883), between Latakia and Jabla ( Kasparek 1995).

Citizen science record: Latakia (iNaturalist 2023).

Distribution in Syria: Foraging and nesting in Syria. Caretta caretta is found throughout the year in different size classes in marine waters off the coast. Some dead turtles were also seen on at the beaches of ash-Shati’ Al-Azraq, Ugarit, Banias, Shati’ Ishtar, Shati’ Al-Dubbat, Al-Khrab, and Ras Al-Baseet. Nesting has been reported for sandy beaches in or near (1) Ras Al-Basit, (2) Um et-Toyour, (3) Wadi Kandil, (4) Latakia beach (Shkaifat and Sanawbar), (5) Banias, (6) south of Tartous ( Rees et al. 2008 a, 2008b, 2010; Saad et al. 2010, 2020; see also Casale et al. 2018 and our Fig. 6 ). Although the coast is mainly sandy, most beaches have a rocky shelf at the edge of the sea, rendering them unsuitable for nesting. There are 12 records off the coast ( Halpin et al. 2009) and Latakia (iNaturalist 2023), respectively. Syrian C. caretta belong to the Mediterranean Regional Management Unit ( Wallace et al. 2023).

Remarks: There are 14 putative records from Syria on GBIF, but these are situated either in neighboring countries or the geographical coordinates refer to inland cities in Syria far from the sea.

Syrian C. caretta belong to the Mediterranean Regional Management Unit ( Wallace et al. 2023).

Figures

FIGURE 5. Loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta off Latakia Beach (photo: Alan F. Rees/ARCHELON).

FIGURE 6. Nesting sites of Caretta caretta in Syria. Black circles: previous records, blue circles: recently confirmed previous records.