Our Latest News- October 25, 2026
Argostoli Field Station
It has been a busy two weeks for Argostoli field station. We have welcomed our final group of volunteers for the season and recommenced our Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) project. We have identified a number of previously unknown and untagged turtles, including three juvenile green sea turtles!
Our CMR project lets us identify new individuals whilst also keeping track of known turtles and the resident population of Argostoli harbour. Several residents have been remeasured and assessed this week including Barb, Artemis & Joey. This continual monitoring enables us to monitor the population’s abundance and growth rates. We thank our volunteers this week for their continual commitment and enthusiasm during these shifts.
We have also seen several injured turtles during this week’s CMR shifts, including propellor strikes and line entanglements. We were able to provide first aid where necessary and as these injuries were caught early before they became too severe, they were successfully released!
Our final nest of the year has been inventoried and we are continuing to monitor it this coming week. Nearly marking the end of our successful hatching season across our beaches. Every nest we inventory adds to the long-term data collection on the health of Kefalonia’s loggerhead population and nesting success. We are incredibly grateful to our volunteers for their hard work this season, helping protect turtles at every stage of life, from eggs and hatchlings to juveniles and adults.
Svoronata Field Station
Our last group at Svoronata has been a small but mighty group! With a storm coming in for their first week it meant for some unpredictable days of shifts however this was rewarded with a magical bird survey at St Theodore’s Lighthouse where not only birds were observed but so much other wildlife as well as a beautiful double rainbow lighting up the sky.
In their second week, the sun was shining and we added a twist to our snorkel surveys – Paddleboard surveys! This meant volunteers got to try their hand at steering and collecting data on the paddleboards! We also spent an amazing day at Livadi Wetlands conducting a bird survey spotting a total of 37 species, including some exciting birds such as a Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) and a Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), followed by a paddleboard survey, a little trip into Lixouri for lunch and a beach clean where we filled 3 bags with rubbish in only 30 minutes!
As we now say goodbye to our final group and conclude the season for our coastal projects, we want to say a huge thank you to every volunteer that has helped make this such an incredible year!
