40 Years of ARCHELON
This year marks 40 years of ARCHELON’s actions protecting the sea turtles in Greece!
Learn more about our vision, mission and how it all started.
There is always something going on at ARCHELON
Find out about the events we organize and our latest actions as we vigorously continue the work of studying, rescuing and protecting sea turtles in Greece!
- OUR NEWS15/09/2023
Lilo, the tiny green turtle, made it back to the sea!
In November 2021 a small green turtle arrived at the ARCHELON Rescue Centre with a very serious head injury. After almost two years of intensive care, one Wednesday in September 2023 he was finally discharged and returned to the sea!
- OUR NEWS17/08/2023
World record of 37 years of reproductive life for a loggerhead sea turtle in Zakynthos, Greece – increased number of nests this summer, says ARCHELON
ARCHELON – the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece announces an important outcome of the systematic work of this year's sea turtle nest monitoring team in Zakynthos. Based on their long-term observations, ARCHELON managed to certify a new World Record of reproductive activity for loggerhead turtles.
- OUR NEWS07/08/2023
ATTENTION! Sea turtles are not pets: Do not touch them or feed them!
The Municipality of Eastern Mani and the Port Authorities requested the assistance of ARCHELON to inform beach users in the area of Limeni, near Mani, where 35 new incidents of sea turtle attacks on sea bathers have been recorded during this summer season. These are added to the already long list of 200 such records of previous years found in the nearby Health Center in Areopolis.
- OUR NEWS01/08/2023
Interview with a volunteer: Lea Heinen, Rescue Centre
Interview with a volunteer: Lea Heinen, Rescue Centre Lea shares her experience volunteering at the ARCHELON Sea Turtle Rescue Centre: “I think when a turtle starts to eat after a month of trying, when you can see the improvement or healing of a turtle's injury and when a turtle is released back into the sea, into its natural habitat, into its home - then you know that you are indeed saving turtles”.
- OUR NEWS21/07/2023
Kids Beach Competition 2023: Make your own little sea turtle with natural materials and send us a photo!
Help us spread the message about the protection of sea turtles by making your own baby turtles with natural materials you will find on the beach. Sand, stones, pebbles, shells, seaweed, sticks and whatever else you have available, can be transformed with a little imagination! Take a photo of your work and send it to the ARCHELON Beach Competition.
Our Accounts for 2022
Despite the pandemic's difficulties and uncertainty this past year, we managed to continue all sea turtle protection activities. We owe a big THANK YOU to the 421 volunteers, from afar and near, who arrived on the nesting beaches of Peloponnese, Zakynthos, Crete, and the Rescue Center in Glyfada to help the work of ARCHELON this year!
Volunteers at the loggerhead nesting beaches recorded and protected approximately 5,749 nests in a total of 62 km (preliminary data) and talked with more than 50,000 people about sea turtle conservation. The projects at the nesting beaches this summer received more than 400 warm wishes from the students who participated in the #Turtlechallenge4 in collaboration with their teachers and parents.
The ARCHELON Rescue Centre in Glyfada continued to receive and treat sea turtles throughout the year. There were 33 new arrivals of injured or sick sea turtles, most of them loggerheads and a few green turtles, and 32 recovered turtles returned to the sea.
Environmental awareness activities with visitors and supporters at the Rescue Centre continued. The education programs with Live Online Tours for schools from all over Greece continued and eventually, we were able to welcome back schools from Attica at the Centre in spring and autumn.
Everybody got busier in 2022. More tourists and furniture were on the beaches, and more reports of injured or dead turtles were received. We are grateful for the support received from friends, donors, sponsors, collaborating organizations, and the hard work of our staff, which enabled us to carry on. There is always more to be done for nature and the marine environment, and we look forward to successfully meeting the challenges of 2023.
Project areas
Discover all the active projects and visit us in your area.
Sea turtles in the Rescue Centre
The Sea Turtle Rescue Center has been operating since 1994 in Glyfada, Attica, next to the sea. It was founded by ARCHELON with the support of the Municipality of Glyfada and the Ministry of the Environment and is one of the first Sea Turtle Rescue Centers in the Mediterranean and the only one in Greece. Its purpose is the treatment and rehabilitation of injured and sick sea turtles and their release back to the sea. You can symbolically adopt one or more injured turtles at the Rescue Center, contributing to the costs of their care and feeding. And of course you can come and see them at the Rescue Centre, or you can be informed from our website about their progress and their release.