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gozotoday | FRIDAY • 21 AUGUST 2026
NEWS
CONTINUES PAGE 1
Nature Trust said volunteers
experienced a "rollercoaster of
emotions", from the excitement
of discovering turtle crawls to
the disappointment of find-
ing that they were false crawls,
where a turtle emerges from
the sea but returns without lay-
ing eggs.
In one case, a turtle dug a
nesting chamber and remained
there for around two hours
without laying a single egg.
Other turtles emerged in un-
suitable or heavily used areas,
including beaches where hu-
man activity made it difficult
for them to reach a suitable
nesting spot.
The organisation said its
monitored beaches had to be
increased from seven to 17 dur-
ing the season, with volunteers
stepping in to cover the addi-
tional workload.
Volunteers will continue pa-
trolling until the end of August
in case a late-nesting turtle
emerges.
For Deidun, the fact that tur-
tles were repeatedly seen at-
tempting to nest is significant.
"The turtles are there. The tur-
tles are in the water," he said,
pointing to the false crawls,
nesting attempts and turtle res-
cues taking place at sea.
The question, therefore, is
not necessarily whether turtles
have disappeared from Maltese
waters, but why they are not
successfully nesting.
Deidun stressed that there is
no definitive answer yet and
that determining the cause
would require substantial re-
search. However, he identified
Marine biologist Alan Deidun
not be viewed as an 'isolated
This year is in direct contract to 2026 which saw a record number of successful nests (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)
