Monitoring sea turtle strandings along Veneto coastline: stranding trends and evidence of human interaction.

The northern Adriatic Sea is known as a foraging and wintering habitat of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). In this region, sea turtles face many natural and human threats, ranging from infevrious diseases to climate change. Within the anthropic impacts, fishing activities, marine traffic and marine litter represents the main threats for this species and their habitat. This work presents data on sea turtle stranded along the Veneto coastline, with a focus on evidente of human interaction. Data were collected by the Cetacean strandings Emergency Response Team (CERT) of the University of Padova during the period 2018-2023. This study focuses on the analysis of demography, spatial and temporal trends, and evidence of human interaction; specifically, the presence of the following evidence was highlighted and classified: trauma consistent with vessel impact; injuries or gear consistent with fishery interaction; ingested materials of anthropogenic origin. Given the increase of the global awareness, research efforts and conservation policy are needed to protect sea turtle population and their habitat.