In the **Kerkennah Islands**, an archipelago off the coast of **Tunisia**, a group of students watches as the turtle Besma returns to the sea after receiving treatment at a **floating hospital** installed on a barge, unique in the region.
“It is very important that turtles can recover in their natural habitat,” explains Hamed Mallat, a biologist who leads this “sea turtle rehabilitation center“.
The project, supported by the United Nations, includes a barge that carries out operations in open sea. Surrounded by nets and buoys, it is, according to Mallat, “the first of its kind in **Tunisia and the Mediterranean**”. The biologist also highlights another feature of this floating hospital: “It is a large space where the turtle is more comfortable to move around and eat in its **natural environment**”.
## Innovative project for the protection of loggerhead turtles
Mallat, who is part of the local association Kraten for **sustainable development**, launched the floating hospital for loggerhead turtles (caretta caretta, its scientific name), a **protected species**. To do this, he recycled an old 150 m² aquaculture cage, which can accommodate up to five sea turtles.
Around 10,000 **loggerhead turtles**, considered one of the most vulnerable, end up trapped each year in fishing nets off the Tunisian coast. The European program Life Medturtles, covering five Mediterranean countries (Albania, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, and Turkey), revealed a very high mortality rate, 70%, linked to **gillnets**.
Turtles often get entangled in these nets, suspended vertically from floats. And it is usually the fishermen themselves who bring them, injured, to biologists and veterinarians.
## Education and environmental awareness
Sarah Gharbi, a 24-year-old student of fisheries and environmental sciences, attended the release of the turtle Besma. “It is a direct application of the theoretical things we study,” said the student from the Insat Agronomy Institute. “It is also a first interaction with **marine species** that we do not usually see in Tunisia as part of our studies. It is new and rewarding,” she stated.
Besma, 20 years old, is ready to lay her first eggs. The program members attached a small beacon to monitor her migratory behavior, which, like that of many species, is changing due to **global warming, overfishing, and pollution**.
“Tunisia lacks research,” Mallat emphasized. The biologist hopes to receive tourists at the platform in the summer to raise awareness among adults and children about the **protection of these turtles**.
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