Sea turtle conservation in Kefalonia

Over Summer 2019, Chris Breeze (currently a 4th year MSci Environmental Science student) volunteered with Wildlife Sense, a conservation and research organisation. Here, he describes his experiences.

“I recently completed my third stint as a sea turtle conservation volunteer, this time as a field researcher for Wildlife Sense based in Kefalonia, Greece. This was a fantastic opportunity to work with the local loggerhead turtle population, the fifth species that I’ve worked with. As a Wildlife Sense researcher, I was involved in early morning beach patrols, harbour shifts, hatchery inventories, hatchling rescue, turtle health checks and turtle photo identification. All of the data we collected will improve understanding turtle migration patterns along with behaviour in Kefalonia.

Hatchery inventories involved opening up nests, releasing hatchlings and opening up eggs. It was incredibly interesting to discover why a turtle hadn’t been born, such as being undeveloped, the presence of bacteria, or even discovering a rare albino turtle. Being a passionate photographer, I was also able to contribute by taking photos of turtles which, due to their unique facial features, means they can be identified and named. These turtles can then be tracked for their appearances. One important part of my role was helping lift adult turtles out of Argostoli harbour. We would examine the turtles for any injuries, sometimes needing to remove fishing hooks or examine boat strike damage to the turtle carapace. This intervention is critical to protecting population levels.

For me, most memorable moments of the project were hatchling rescue. Spending the night lying under the night sky, next to turtle nests was exhausting, with very little sleep and plenty of insects. However, when you wake up to find 1, 2 or even 30 hatchlings emerge then  seeing them crawl into the ocean is, for me one of the most beautiful moments in nature. When only 1 in 1000 hatchlings reaches adulthood, work like this is critical to sea turtle protection.

As an environmental scientist, undertaking sea turtle conservation has proven an enriching experience for me. It gave me the opportunity to put into practice all the knowledge and skills I’ve learnt while protecting an endangered species. I would absolutely recommend for fellow students to consider joining a sea turtle conservation project  or something similar which will provide valuable experience for them.”