Last summer in Kyparissia, ARCHELON’s team led by Alan Rees attached satellite tags to nine female loggerheads. At the time of writing this, in early February 2019, four tags are still providing daily locations for the turtles on which they have been placed.
 

We were surprised at ARCHELON, when a collaboration proposal about training a sniffing dog for sea turtle nests reached us from CESTMed- FR and the Center for Conservation Biology of the University of Washington - USA.

She passed away yesterday, at an old age, a lady who played an important role in the appreciation and conservation of nature and environmental protection in Greece…

Our adventures with the boat, the locals, my 2CV, the sea turtles, the volunteers became the bed time stories for my daughter Margarita and my son Themistocles. I was telling them these stories every single night.

Bahari Karuna is about "Ocean Compassion" dealing with sea turtle and shark conservation in the Western Region of Ghana, working with communities in order to benefit them and the oceans while securing the survival of species for future generations. Neil Davis, an Archelonosaurus (late Cretaceous) & WILDSEAS Projects Director sent us this short report!

According to the information contained in the annual ARCHELON Crete report, 446 nests were located and protected during the 2018 nesting season in the three main nesting habitats of this protected species, namely the beaches of Rethymno, Chania and Messara bay.

This short report, submitted to the European Commission, presents the main events in the efforts to protect the nesting habitats of Loggerhead Sea Turtles in the island of Crete, Greece during 2018 (bays of Rethymno GR4330004, Chania GR4340003 & GR4340006, Messara GR4310004 & GR4310012), which are designated as NATURA 2000 areas.

It has started three days ago and it expected to last another 2-3 days. It is the mass nesting of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) in Costa Rica.

Is it possible to release a sea turtle entangled in longlines without hurting it and tearing the nets too much? Yes, according to the Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR), with the use of "the cutter"; their innovative telescopic tool, which was developed in collaboration with ARCHELON for this purpose. With this tool one can help without hurting the animal and without damaging extensively the nets. The testing of the cutter is one of the activities of the Life Euroturtles project, a collaboration between 6 Mediterranean countries of the EU.

Last week marked the 35th anniversary of the foundation of ARCHELON. We were planning to celebrate this a bit later, but suddenly the actual date was reminded by some of the newest members. The first wishes appeared, followed by an explosion of messages and posts and a colorful cloud of wishes from friends and members. Happy birthday ARCHELON!

This short report, submitted to the European Commission, the Standing Committee of Bern Convention and the ministry of Environment and Energy presents the main events in the efforts to protect the nesting habitats of Loggerhead Sea Turtles in Laganas Bay, Zakynthos.
 

Suddenly one reads on the screen the phrase: “There is a phone number people can call when an injured sea turtle is found – we’re on the line 24/7.”It is about ARCHELON’s Rescue Center!
 

Conservation efforts during 2018 at the nesting habitat of Caretta caretta in southern Kyparissia Bay (Natura 2000 - GR2550005 “Thines Kyparissias”)

In a recently published review about sea turtles in the Mediterranean, it was acknowledged that significant gaps still exist on several topics, especially for certain areas (e.g. south-eastern Mediterranean). These gaps are particularly marked for the green turtle.

The first tracks of hatchlings have already appeared on the nesting beaches of Kyparissiakos, Rethymno, Chania, Gytheio, Zakynthos and it seems most of them were successful in reaching the sea.