Monitoring and protection of nesting beaches
The protection of sea turtle nesting beaches contributes vastly to the conservation of sea turtle populations.
About 75-100 km of beaches with an average of 5,000 loggerhead nests are monitored through our actions on Zakynthos, Crete and the Peloponnese every year. Our field teams direct their efforts on the beaches so that adult females can nest undisturbed, nests remain safe during incubation and hatchlings emerge and reach the sea unobstructed.
We ensure the protection of:
- The nesting of adult females
- The protection of the nests
- The hatching of the baby turtles until they enter the sea
Each year's nesting is affected by extreme weather events, severe soil erosion, predation by wildlife and human activities on the nesting beaches. Also, on the nesting beaches, ARCHELON researchers relocate some nests that are at the risk of flooding or affected by light pollution to safer locations at the nesting beaches to hatch. The volunteers also put protective covers to prevent the nests from being stepped on by visitors and predation by wild animals.
Population data
Important information about the biology and population composition of sea turtles, and the migration routes in the Mediterranean Sea are collected from our fieldwork projects. Tagging and identification of already tagged individuals occurs on the nesting beaches of Zakynthos, Crete and the Peloponnese. This helps to find out their distribution in the Mediterranean after they have nested. The identification of migration routes is carried out with the help of satellite tags on selected individuals.
Tagging is also carried out in the feeding grounds of Amvrakikos Gulf, in order to investigate the growth rates of turtles living there.
Important information on the threats and pressures at sea from all coastal areas is collected through the nationwide Rescue Network. All turtles released from the Rescue Centre are tagged.
During the last two decades, it has been possible to genetically group the sea turtles populations which reproduce in Greek beaches through respective research.
Actions to clean the beach from plastic are organized in all the ARCHELON project areas. Dune restoration projects have been carried out by ARCHELON on the nesting beaches of the Lakonikos bay and in the Kotychi area of Ilia.