Thanks to a notice received from a local enterprise in Kalamaki, Messara Bay, on July 22, 2019, the team of ARCHELON confirmed that the Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) also nests on Crete.
 

Greece hosts about 90% of the nests of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in the EU every summer and bears a unique responsibility amongst the EU member States for the conservation of this species. The awareness of the threats that sea turtles face in the Mediterranean led ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, to the establishment of ARCHELON’s Sea Turtle Rescue Center, 25 years ago. The Centre is one of the many places where young people can volunteer through via European Solidarity Corps (former European Voluntary Service (EVS) program).
 

Jo has been a remarkable leader for the public awareness activity in the Zakynthos project for a number of years. She has trained many volunteers, has given hundreds of presentations herself and has help a great deal in raising funds for the project.

The enthusiasm of the project team of Lakonikos was cut short, from the increased number of strandings of dead and injured turtles in the area. The incidents were reported by residents, visitors and the volunteers themselves. Big thanks to the people who spotted and informed ARCHELON about these strandings.
 

The information table of ARCHELON operated during the afternoons of the weekend from 7/6 to 9/6, together with several other nature related organizations.

Satellite tags were deployed in 12 loggerhead turtles in order to investigate their movements at sea between each nesting effort as well as their movements after their nesting is completed for the season.
 

We are happy to announce that a part of the exhibition is dedicated in help for saving the sea turtles and was created in collaboration with ARCHELON!

Every time I encounter a sea turtle underwater I recall Zakynthos in 2017, where I was ARCHELON’s monitoring assistant. I enjoyed so much the night surveys on the beaches and going snorkeling to observe these ancient reptiles underwater.

Last Sunday, the 19th of May, the volunteers who take care of the turtles welcomed about 500 people in the Rescue Center and guided them providing information about these magnificent marine creatures.

The following impressive migration story has been revealed to Dimitris Margaritoulis and Alan Rees through a combination of a satellite transmitter and flipper tags.

It all started in 2007, when Kostas Papafitsoros, now well known for his unique sea turtle pictures, saw a poster announcing ARCHELON’s conservation projects on the Athens metro and joined as volunteer.
Since then, he has been joining our projects every year, and his interest in sea turtle conservation brought him to photography and to research...

Elementary schools of Chania and Rethymno were informed about sea turtles last week by Odysseas Paxinos, the project officer of Crete and Panagiota Theodorou, ARCHELON’s conservation coordinator. Their spring visit to Crete also included Informative meetings in Chania, Rethymno and Iraklion about the implementation of nesting beach protection measures.

Τhe first presentation of ARCHELON’s sea turtle conservation work by drones has been made publically available. What are drones?

Last year brought significant improvements to the ARCHELON Rescue Center facilities in Glyfada. The pumping installations for the tanks was replaced, additional tanks were supplied and connected, a wooden platform was constructed next to the external tanks and modern surgical equipment was acquired as planned in the LIFE EUROTURTLES project…

How does a hatchling feel just before it hatches? What advice will the squid give him on humans?
"Α love story in the Mediterranean Sea", is an illustrated fairy tale created by 17 of ARCHELON's volunteers originating from 5 countries.