Our News
Sea turtles return to nest on the beaches of Crete
02/06/2020
ARCHELON’s team located the first nest of the season on May 23 at Kommos beach and placed a protective cage to avoid disturbance. Morning surveys begin tomorrow on the beach of Rethymnon and in the coming weeks in Chania.
ARCHELON meets with the loggerheads while taking up special protection against COVID19
28/05/2020
Two loggerhead nests marked the start of this year's ARCHELON counts on Zakynthos island, one located in Gerakas and one in Sekania, both recorded on May 26. A bit further to the east, in south Kyparissia bay, the team located twelve nests, from May 16 until today. And this is just the beginning!
Ηow important is it to protect adult sea turtles in the Med?
06/05/2020
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.
News flash for volunteers in ARCHELON’s sea turtle conservation programs - Update 30/4/2020
30/04/2020
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.
Our Accounts for 2019
2019 was a great year in many ways. First of all, there was a particularly high participation of volunteers in ARCHELON’s projects, coming from abroad and from Greece. In a total of 134 km of beach in Zakynthos, Kyparissia, Crete, southern Peloponnese, Preveza which were systematically surveyed, we recorded 6,400 loggerhead nests and the first green turtle nest (in southern Crete).
The Rescue Center hosted 83 turtles, 26 of which came in previous years. New treatment techniques were tried out and resulted in 43 recovered sea turtles having been released back to the sea, more than any other year.
The publication of research on plastics in sea turtles in Greece, a project in which we participated, confirmed the magnitude of the problem. ARCHELON teams participated in the removal of garbage and abandoned fishing gear in the project areas.
