In the summer months, many of Greece’s beaches become host to the Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta Caretta), alongside countless holidaymakers. Here this endangered species nest to give rise to the next generation of sea turtles, and this is where Archelon become important.
Archelon is responsible for the protection of Loggerhead sea turtles in Greece, on both beaches and in water also; they have been established since 1983. Their primary goals are to protect turtles and their habitats throughout the country by scientific monitoring and research that enables the development and implementation of management plans, habitat restoration, raising public awareness and rehabilitating sick and injured turtles.
So what is the life cycle of a sea turtle?
Female loggerheads reach sexual maturity between the ages of 17 and 33, not much is known about the courtship behaviour of sea turtles but we do know it includes nuzzling, biting and specific head/flipper movements. Female turtles ovulate eggs which are fertilised by the male, this is a rare occurrence beyond mammals but facilitates the form of nesting that turtles carry out.
In Greece, specifically, the nesting season is between late May and early August. During this time period, a female turtle can return up to three times to lay three different clutches (groups of eggs), this is an adaption that increases the likelihood of survival. It is in keeping with the old saying ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ Females will always return to the same beach, or a nearby beach, to which they hatched on.
Laying a nest is probably, what looks like, the most exhausting and long process I have ever witnessed. The mama turtle leaves the water and climbs the beach using her flippers. She then uses her flippers and carapace to form a body pit, this is primarily to test the sand and whether she thinks it is a good place to dig her nest. In one nesting attempt, she can form any amount of body pits until she is either happy, or not, and returns to the water.
If she is happy, she will use her hind flippers to excavate an egg chamber where she lays her eggs; a mama sea turtle’s average clutch size (no. of eggs) is 112, although much more and much less have been seen. She then camouflages the egg chamber and body pit by flicking sand over it and returns to the sea.
The eggs themselves are like small, soft ping pong balls when first laid. They
are often white, perfectly round and squishy. Why? So when they drop into the egg chamber they don’t break or damage one another. The nesting area is very important as it affects many aspects of the emerging hatchlings. The fitness of hatchlings can be damaged by areas that have high levels of sand disturbance or vibrations from music/roads, this same factor can also influence emergence ratios (no. of babies that actually hatch), and the potential for predation from either naturally occurring species such as foxes or stray dogs and cats. If the nest is laid too close to the water it is often inundated and the sand becomes water locked, starving the eggs of the necessary oxygen and you can work out what happens next; however most nests are laid above the high-tide line.
In a successful nest, the eggs are incubated between 25-32 degrees. One interesting fact is that hatchlings sex is temperature-dependent meaning the higher the temperature the resulting hatchlings will be female, and lower means male. This means that you can either have whole nests of males, or females, or equal ratios if the temperature is in the mid-ground.
After roughly 75 days incubation, depending on environmental factors, hatchlings emerge. Ideally they emerge at night as the darkness decreases the chance of predation, the sand surface temperatures are reduced and finally, hatchlings are phototactic meaning they find their direction by looking for reflecting moonlight on water. Once in the sea, they navigate to safer waters where they will live and feed until reaching a juvenile age and continue on to foraging areas where they reach maturity and begin to mate.
What does Archelon do?
Across Greece they run conservation projects across the whole country: Zakynthos
Crete - Rethymno
Crete - Chania
Crete - Messara
Peloponnese - Lakonikos Bay
Peloponnese - Kyparissia
Peloponnese - Koroni
Peloponnese - Giannitsochori
Amvrakikos.
The Peloponnese is where I was, and is one of the major nesting areas in Greece. I was in Lakonikos Bay project which has 4 patrolled beaches and is mainly a greek tourist destination, it is idyllic and beautiful (as described in the previous post of this series) and the nesting numbers here are slowly increasing.
Across all of these projects, morning observation is carried out, during which Loggerhead reproductive activity is recorded daily such as nesting attempts/frequencies. Disruptive human activity on beaches is also recorded and weather conditions. Night observation is also carried out in which turtles are measured and tagged while paralysed during laying the eggs, this can also involve emergency relocations of nests in critical danger. To protect the nests from both human activity and predation by mammals (i.e. foxes, dogs etc.) the egg meter squared area around the located nest is enclosed in a ‘cage’ made up of a grid and bamboo with an attached sign explaining about the nest. In areas where light pollution may disorient the hatchlings when they emerge, special ‘shading’ is built to help guide the hatchlings to the sea. After hatchlings have emerged excavation of the nests is necessary to gain scientific data about hatchling rates. All data that is collected is used to completing scientific databases of nesting and hatchling data in order to further research at Archelon. Some beaches also operate hatcheries which are when nests are relocated to safer locations in order to protect them from the effects of human activity on the beach, this only happens on extremely affected beaches and under very specific circumstances.
Increasing public awareness is a massive part of volunteering with Archelon. Seasonal information kiosks are put on main nesting beaches, informational slide shows at tourist facilities and campgrounds of the area are organised as well as by conducting beach patrols during the day in order to raise the bathers' awareness of the importance of the nesting beach and educate younger children about the turtles.
Archelon is responsible for rescuing stranded or injured sea turtles who are rehabilitated in the rescue centre in Athens until back at full health.
Finally, they also operate a project in Amvarakikos in which volunteers have been monitoring the area for the past decade in order to research the presence of turtles by spotting, tagging and satellite tracking the population.
How do you volunteer?
Volunteering with Archelon was truly one of the best experiences I have had, it will stay with me for a lifetime and I highly recommend it to anyone, not just those interested in conservation. It is both fulfilling and satisfying, you create incredible like-minded friends and leave knowing you’ve given something back to the ‘world’.
The turtles that you could be conserving this summer are a product of Archelon’s success 15+ years ago, and in 15+ years time, there will be volunteers on the same beach, helping the mama turtle that you knew as a hatchling.
CLICK HERE to visit Archelon's website for more information if you are undecided or hesitant.
However if you want to apply right here and now you can do so by filing out THIS FORM
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