ARCHELON needs you! We are asking all volunteers, their friends, their kids, nieces and nephews, even grand kids to help us. With your own inspiration and imagination we will create a fun+ adventure video that will be shot at the Rescue Center. It is our antidote to the pandemic!

Applications for participation of volunteers and field leaders for the projects in 2021 are now accepted! Despite the adversity we are experiencing, we are determined to continue with ARCHELON’s projects in the best possible way in the New Year! We need enthusiastic volunteers to record and protect sea turtles, their nests, and turtles on nesting beaches, and to continue rescuing and treating injured or sick turtles at the Rescue Center.

It all started when “our” Megan McFarlane found out that The Fair Earth Foundation, a registered UK charity, runs in the first week of every month a special challenge to climb Mt Teide. El Teide is located in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, and it’s the third highest volcano in the world.

A loggerhead sea turtle observed by ARCHELON to nest in Zakynthos in 2018 and 2019 was transferred exhausted to the Tunisian Sea Turtle Rescue Center in 2020. Annual reproduction implies a high energy toll for sea turtles.

There are many mysteries of sea turtles and their life in the sea remaining to be solved. An example is male sea turtles which are less studied than the females and their behavior is not well known. Do they inhabit the same habitats as those of females? To what extend do they reside in other areas that would benefit from conservation?

The Italian marine species protection organization DelTA contacted us after finding a dead loggerhead in the Gulf of Trieste and it turned out it was M8153, one of the oldest that have been marked in ARCHELON’s projects.

We placed the temperature logs in the beginning of the summer and now, after all hatchlings had left, we came back to collect them.

Restrictions on international travel and measures to prevent the spread of COVID19 have resulted in the cancellation of the participation of most volunteers in ARCHELON’s summer projects of this year. The self-financing of ARCHELON's activities on Zakynthos would not be possible. That is why we submitted an application for financing to the Green Fund of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which was approved.

Knowing the ecological sensitivity of residents and visitors who support the work of ARCHELON every summer since 1994, we appeal to them for reducing light pollution by turning off or shading the municipal and private artificial lights that shine on the beach, after 11pm each night.
 

Now that Greece has opened up for people from many countries, we want to make sure that the teams will continue to remain safe from COVID-19 until the end of the projects. That is why we have come to take the following decision...

“The invitation came in February 2016 and it is still my current affiliation with the Society. I work with people I appreciate, contributing to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers who collect data every year on the beaches, aiming to protect our common environment”

Τhe Green Fund of the Ministry of Environment and Energy will co-finance specific actions of the Life Euroturtles project, for the 4th year in a row. 

A recent study of the clutch frequency of the loggerheads nesting in the southern gulf of Kyparissia, Greece by ARCHELON (2020) showed that the estimated number of sea turtles breeding in the Mediterranean may be overestimated by 73%. Now that we know there are fewer sea turtles breeding in the Mediterranean than we thought, more efforts to protect adult turtles must be taken up.

Following the Greek government's announcements the day before yesterday about the gradual removal of the lockdown measures, we are now more prepared to announce developments for our projects.

At a time when human affairs are postponed and delayed, life in nature does not stand still. Help us continue to protect and care for sea turtles in this difficult time. Your donation is needed to get us all together to a worthwhile tomorrow.