Loggerhead turtle sanctuary in Greece

[greekbird]

Hey all,

In the current issue of Dive mag there's an article (which is really embarassing for me at least being greek and all) about how and why the goverment has cut the funding to the local conservation group that patrols the beaches where these lovely creatures lay their eggs.

Also it seems that tourist agencies are already taking advantage of the situation and are arranging trips specifically to these places to 'show off' the animals, tourists and ignorant-uncaring locals are hassling them etcetc

The turtles are an endangered species and this is obviously causing them much distress.

Besides raising your awareness with this post I would like to do something to raise some funds to help the local conservation groups with their work. I have never done this before so any ideas on how to go about it would be much apreciated. What I have come up with is this:

If you are interested in a hands-on effort you can become a volunteer

http://www.archelon.gr/eng/volunt.htm

Alternatively you can sponsor a turtle

http://www.archelon.gr/eng/sponsoraturtle.htm

Greekbird

[String]

Having just come back from the island in question (Zakynthos) i can confirm the story is true.

Sadly its not just this affected, the olympics have practically channeled all money from all round Greece into Athens meaning all kinds of projects from this to construction and other preservation has received virtually no funding and nationwide things are suffering. Basically from what the locals are saying the Olympics has killed all of greece this last few years other than Athens itself.

Ive been to the island for the last 3 years and one obvious change was evident on the turtle nesting beaches this year.

There are watch towers spread on the beaches and a hut near all entrances to the beach. On previous years marine park workers manned these huts and all visitors to the beach were briefed on exactly what was and wasnt allowed, where they could put umbrellas etc and given leaflets explaining this. The beaches were also patrolled to ensure compliance. In the main areas a strict no boats at all policy was enforced.

This year the towers and huts are empty, no information is given to visitors and no regular patrols. A small number of RIBs and other boats are appearing on the shoreline. Presumably this is a direct result of the funding cut limiting the number of workers.

On the plus side, despite the diver article it appears turtle numbers are just about steady and not decreasing.

For what its worth i saw a total of 4 turtles over there, one on a day turtle watching trip but the best sighting was when one joined us on a dive off the south west tip of the island in about 8m of water.

A few bandwidth hogging (sorry) photos below:


(above) Turtle seen from boat on surface




(above) 3 shots of the turtle seen on the dive.