Nature is doing its part. Are we?

Summer is once again with us. As the dry months set in, the Maltese landscape becomes progressively less green, with wild plants dying off. The environment, however, is not just about air, water or greenery. It also includes the rich biodiversity and wildlife that share our islands. Among the more remarkable signs of life during this season is a much-anticipated natural phenomenon.

In what has become an almost annual occurrence, a few female loggerhead turtles emerge from the sea under cover of darkness and make their way laboriously onto a sandy shore in search of a secluded spot where to dig their nests and lay their eggs, sometimes in clutches of about a hundred.

At times a single female may successfully and against all odds even manage to produce two or three nests during the egg laying season in an effort to produce as many young as possible so as to ensure the survival of the species. Indeed only about 1 in every 1,000 hatchlings manage to make it to adulthood.

Theirs is a lifetime fraught with hazards, both natural and man-made. No sooner do the hatchlings emerge from their nest at night that they may become part of the food chain as predatory crabs patrol the beach. Those that make it to the sea may very likely be eaten by fish while still at a very young age, but perhaps the most significant threats pertain to human activity.

Turtles may be struck by boats as they surface to breathe and bask. They may very easily end up entangled in fishing nets or caught in fishing lines. Others may succumb to plastic ingestion after mistaking improperly disposed plastic bags for jellyfish, part of their natural diet.

And if a female turtle manages to reach adulthood and it's time to lay eggs, light and sound pollution from the beaches can easily disturb the process, causing her to release them into the sea instead.

Furthermore, even if a turtle successfully nests, the nest itself is also under threat as it may be unknowingly trampled upon by beach goers. And once the young hatch at night, any light pollution from parties, buildings and streetlights at the beach will disorient the hatchings, which instead of instinctively making their way to the sea attracted by the reflection of the moonlight they are attracted towards the source of light inland, and eventually die off as exhaustion and dehydration set in.

But thanks to various initiatives taken over the years the successful nesting of turtles in Malta has markedly increased. It's worth noting that marine turtles in Malta were first granted legal protection in 1992, at a time when legislation on nature protection was still relatively limited. In fact, marine turtles were at the time still being caught locally from the wild and sold openly at the fish markets for their meat, the primary ingredient for turtle soup.

The vision at the time was to bring nature protection legislation in line with European standards, and eventually with the EU's environmental acquis. In fact, such protection was afforded to marine turtles, amongst several other threatened species, in preparation for Malta's ratification of the Council of Europe's Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, also known as the Bern Convention, on November 26, 1993.

The protection of marine turtles and their nests was further reaffirmed by virtue of other domestic legislation brought into force in 2003 (The Flora, Fauna and Natural Habitats Protection Regulations) which transposed the requirements of the EU's Habitats Directive prior to Malta's accession into the EU in 2004.

Initial protection as Special Areas of Conservation and candidate sites of International Importance under the EU's Habitats Directive of all of Malta's largest sandy beaches which were also potential nesting sites for marine turtles was carried out as early as 2005.

Furthermore, in 2010, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was established and granted the power to issue an Emergency Conservation Order. In the case of a turtle nesting incident, this serves as an important tool for regulating human activity that could negatively affect the nest.

Indeed in less than two years since the granting of such powers, the first Emergency Conservation Order was issued to protect a turtle nest that was located at Gnejna Bay in June 2012, a good 50 years since the last known nesting that happened in Golden Bay (Ir-Ramla tal-Mixquqa) when on that occasion both the turtle and its eggs ended up being consumed by humans.

Since 2012, other sporadic nesting incidents occurred, but in recent years turtle nesting has been recorded on a more appreciable scale, also thanks to volunteers from the environmental NGO Nature Trust who regularly patrol the beaches at night during the breeding season in search of newly established nests.

Not only have the number of individual nests per year increased but also the number of nesting beaches, namely Ġnejna, Għajn Tuffieħa, Golden Bay, Għadira Bay, ir-Ramla and on one occasion even the tiny Fajtata Bay at Marsaskala. But what does this mean in terms of current and future governance responsibilities?

All of these beaches present site management challenges in the form of increased urbanisation, tourism related activities, light and sound pollution, beach cleaning activities, watersports, fishing activity, etc.

Notwithstanding a record numbers of nests in 2024, not a single site in Malta has to date been managed specifically as a nesting site for marine turtles. The setting up of turtle nest protection measures invariably takes place in reaction to their confirmed occurrence.

Times have changed since the initiatives discussed here were first introduced. Progress and development have followed, as expected in any modern society. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But the new challenge lies in finding the right balance between human activity and the natural world around us. That balance is where we still have a lot of work to do.

If marine turtles and their nests are to benefit from appropriate conservation measures then we need to start thinking about being more proactive and less reactive. In this regard, the protection of marine turtles and their nests fits into the Nationalist's Party broader vision of safeguarding our natural environment - not only for its intrinsic value, but also for the benefit of future generations.