{{third-party, date=March 2014 Babyturtle sept 2015

ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece was founded in 1983. It aims to protect

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s and their

habitats In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

through

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

, public awareness campaigns, restoring habitats, and through its rescue centre, built in 1994.

Overview

ARCHELON is a partner to the

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

Mediterranean Action Plan The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, originally the Convention for Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution,Glyfada Glyfada (, ) is a town and a suburb in the South Athens regional unit located in the Athens Riviera along the coast of Saronic Gulf. It is situated in the southern parts of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens urban area. The area stretches from ...

(

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

). *Three permanent and 10 seasonal stations are operated by ARCHELON on

Zakynthos Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; ; ) or Zante (, , ; ; from the Venetian language, Venetian form, traditionally Latinized as Zacynthus) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands, with an are ...

Peloponnesus The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the ...

and

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. *About 200,000 tourists are directly contacted through ARCHELON's diverse programmes every year *Over 13,000 students participate every year in the educational programmes The rescue centre is currently undergoing development and expansion, and an emergency turtle first-aid centre was built in 2005, on Crete. In 2004, as Athens hosted the Olympic games resulted in a tight financial situation for Greece nationally, which resulted in cuts in its environmental services, which included the closure of the

National Marine Park of Zakynthos The National Marine Park of Zakynthos () founded in 1999, is a national park located in Laganas bay, in Zakynthos island, Greece. The park, part of the Natura 2000 ecological network, covers an area of and is the habitat of the loggerhead sea tur ...

, a move strongly contested by ARCHELON and its members, who prepared a petition.

Field projects

ARCHELON run a total of 7 long term field projects on

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of sea turtle, oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the Family (biology), family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around ...

(Caretta caretta), nesting beaches around Greece. These projects run for the majority of the nesting and hatching season, from mid-May until mid-October.

Zakynthos Project

The Ionian island of Zakynthos (western Greece) has the largest Mediterranean nesting (the second one being in

Kyparissia Kyparissia () is a town and a former municipality in northwestern Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Trifylia, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has ...

bay). Because of this, Zakynthos has been chosen to host the original project. The group's founders, Dimitris and Anna Margaritoulis, began collecting data here in the late 1970s and from those initial studies the group grew. Today the project continues to be the largest in scope of all the Archelon projects. There are 6 beaches on the island that are monitored by the group, all of which are in Laganas Bay to the South. These beaches are Gerakas, Daphni, Sekania, Kalamaki (Crystal beach), Laganas and Marathonissi, a small uninhabited island in the bay. All of the beaches apart from Sekania are heavily used by tourists. Sekania is specially protected due to its very high density of nests and, therefore, its importance as a nesting area. It is completely closed to visitors. The protection of all the beaches and the waters in the bay are implemented by the

. The land behind Sekania was bought by the WWF in order to prevent construction of any kind which may disturb the turtles nesting behaviour. In 2014 the group has reported a nest count of 1066 nests on the 6 beaches. In addition its public awareness activities have informed approximately 63,600 people, mostly tourists.

References

ARCHELON's official website
Nature conservation in Greece Environmental organizations based in Greece Organizations established in 1983 1983 establishments in Greece Organizations based in Athens Glyfada Nature conservation organisations based in Europe Wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centers