Gandia’s beaches have spent the last few summers taking part in one of the Mediterranean’s most surprising natural phenomena: the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) has begun nesting on the Valencian coast, and knowing how to react to an encounter is now part of the swimming season.
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For decades the species bred almost exclusively on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Warming seas are pushing it westwards, and the La Safor coastline is among the places where clutches have already been recorded. Here is what is happening, what became of the nest on the Playa Norte, and how you can help if you come across a turtle on the sand.
Why the loggerhead turtle is now looking to the western Mediterranean
On its traditional nesting beaches, summer sand temperatures now complicate incubation. The sex of the hatchlings depends on the temperature of the nest, so overheating produces clutches that are increasingly feminised and less viable. The females have responded by widening their breeding range, and the Spanish coast today offers more favourable conditions for the eggs to thrive.
The phenomenon is being closely studied. The InGeNi-Caretta project (2023-2025), funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad of Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition, is investigating the colonisation of the western Mediterranean with the participation of the Gandia campus of the Universitat Politècnica de València, which has been fitting turtles with transmitters to follow their routes by satellite for years.
62 eggs on the Playa Norte: the night that put Gandia on the map
In the early hours of 19 June 2023, at around 06:00, beach cleaning crews spotted a loggerhead turtle on the sand of Gandia’s Playa Norte and alerted the local police. The call activated the protocol of the Comunitat Valenciana’s stranding network (Red de Varamientos), and within a few hours technicians and vets were working on site. It was the second nesting of the season in the Comunitat Valenciana, detected less than 48 hours after a clutch was laid in Dénia.
Vets from the Fundación Oceanogràfic gave the female an ultrasound scan and blood tests on the spot, and researchers from the UPV and the Universitat de València fitted her with a satellite transmitter before she returned to the sea. The clutch of 62 eggs was handled in two parts: 7 eggs travelled to the Oceanogràfic’s incubators and the remaining 55 were moved to the protected La Punta beach, in the Albufera Natural Park, where nests found along the Valencian coast are kept under guard.
The eggs incubated in captivity join the head-starting programme: the hatchlings spend their first months growing in controlled facilities until they reach a size that multiplies their chances of surviving in the open sea, and the Gandia campus then tracks the released juveniles by satellite.
What to do if you see a turtle on the beach
The official protocol is simple and designed to let the nesting run its course:
- Call 112 as soon as you see her: the call mobilises the stranding network’s technicians and vets.
- Keep your distance and never block her path, either up the sand or back to the sea.
- Avoid lights and noise: no torches, flashes or screens near the animal.
- Do not touch her or try to move her or return her to the water; the specialists will take care of everything.
Gandia is one of the municipalities signed up to the «Aquí salvamos tortugas» (“Here we save turtles”) campaign, run by the Generalitat and the Fundación Oceanogràfic, which reached its seventh edition in 2026 with more than a hundred coastal towns taking part. During the nesting season you will find its posters on seafront promenades and public transport, always with 112 as the number to remember.
L’Ahuir, the unspoilt beach where nature sets the rules
If the loggerhead’s arrival has an ideal setting in Gandia, it is l’Ahuir beach, the undeveloped stretch of sand and dunes that closes the municipality to the north. The town council is carrying out a dune restoration project there with an investment of €6.7 million from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition: recovering the dune belt, removing invasive plants and laying wooden walkways so you can reach the shore without damaging the vegetation.
The visit rounds off nicely inland. Just behind the dunes lies the wetland of the marjal, with the Alqueria del Duc as its gateway, and the walking route through the Marjal reveals the freshwater side of Gandia’s coastline on foot.
Getting there is easy even without a car: the L2 urban bus line stops on Carrer Alcoi and there is a SaforBici station on the Plaça Rosa dels Vents, where the walk leading to the l’Ahuir walkways begins. The detailed itinerary is on the official Sendes Urbanes de Gandia website.