Exactly a month ago I watched another Sea Turtle being released into the Adriatic Sea.
Atlante, that’s her name, had been caught into a crawl net and hurt in the process but luckily the fishing boat brought her to a specialized center, the Cetacean Foundation in Riccione, where she was nursed back to health. Fast forward 10 months and she was on the beach of my hometown, surrounded by hundreds of very excited and very loud school kids – not to mention a few dozens of equally animated adults -- for her “release party”.
After enduring with turtle poise her role as the star of that particular show, she was let go a few meters from the shore and finally dived into the sea with all the gusto one can imagine a prisoner (if by quite benevolent and well-intentioned captors) finding her freedom at last.
Since then, Atlante has, as they say, been around: the GPS receiver mounted on her back is enabling a group of marine biologists to track her whereabouts. They’ll be mapping her roaming across the Adriatic (which explains her male name even though she’s a female: Atlante is Italian for Atlas) for at least a year and the results are readily available on the web.
Godspeed, Atlante!
