Jun

Our Latest News- June 2, 2025

Skala Field Station

It has been a cloudy and wet start to the season here in Skala, but the volunteers have not let that dampen the mood. They got stuck in during training day, especially with the practice swim where the temperature of the water was chilly; however, they took it all in their stride. They all seemed to dive straight into their ice creams after a busy beach demo, maybe a little faster than they dove into the sea; it was well deserved after a long day of training. Their first shifts were a success, with lots of great data being collected! With 18 different plant species already being identified and 17 quadrats surveyed. We also had a brilliant first beach clean shift with a surprising amount of rubbish being collected from our survey site in Skala. This is just a glimpse of what is to come from an amazing season here in Skala. They ended their first day of shifts with a beautiful sunset swim, once again braving the oddly cold water temperatures. This always seems to be a favourite evening activity amongst our volunteers. We are looking forward to hearing all about their adventures from their days off and are excited for all that comes next!

Svoronata Field Station

We welcomed our first group of volunteers as they kicked off the coastal conservation season! Our volunteers have been working tirelessly to learn the various techniques and tools needed for our surveys, including how to efficiently use snorkels and fins, how to enter data into our programs, and how to properly assess the amount of light pollution emitted from beach bars and shops. Our first snorkel survey to observe the growth of our local seagrass, Posidonia oceanica, showed much promise, with consistent data being input on new seagrass growth. The volunteers had to learn how to use depth meters to measure how deep the posidonia was, as well as compasses and GoPros to track which areas of the beach they had covered throughout the survey.

Our volunteers are becoming familiar with the Latin names of some of our more common plants found in the sand dunes, as well as how to correctly collect data for our different research projects. The volunteers have begun to learn the importance of all the types of data we collect and how this data can help us better protect the environment we live in. Our very first bird survey yielded many species of birds, like the European Greenfinch and the Spotted Flycatcher. Our first week back at the Svoronata field station with volunteers has gone swimmingly so far, and we look forward to another great week with these volunteers!

Lixouri Field Station

In the past two weeks in Lixouri, nesting has started! They currently have a total nest count of 5 and are hoping that this will continue to increase. A successful changeover has welcomed 19 new volunteers who have started their morning surveys successfully, finding a mixture of false crawls and nests. Night surveys have also started, where one turtle, Stephanie, has been observed laying the second nest on Megas Lakkos. She started laying in the early hours, and the volunteers were able to observe her nesting under a beautiful sunrise. Both staff and volunteers can’t wait to see and hear about more night survey sea turtles! Each morning after night surveys and morning surveys, volunteers are eager to hear about any new turtle activity.

The new volunteers are familiarizing themselves with the equipment and the data collection that they will be performing for the coming weeks, with beach clean, harbor and beach profile in full swing. Volunteers have also been getting stuck in with evening activities such as Souvlaki night, beach rounders and quizzes! They have received lots of training and talks and are now super excited to kick off and get into action here in our Lixouri field station!

Argostoli Field Station

As we approach the end of May, our mating season here in Kefalonia is slowly coming to an end. It has been a very successful tagging season with over 300 turtles out of the water for our CMR project. Some highlights include two newly tagged green sea turtles (Butternut and Honey), our smallest recorded loggerheads, Moo, and the numerous rescues carried out by the team. Furthermore, one of our loggerhead sea turtles Aniya, who was last measured on one of our nesting beaches nine years ago, was captured and measured, which was very exciting. This highlights the importance of the photo ID and CMR projects, as we hope to see her in the harbour and on our nesting beaches.

Over the last two weeks, the Argostoli field station has recorded its first tracks of the season, shortly followed by the first nest! The volunteers were extremely excited about this, and all participated in finding the eggs. Since then, we have had several more nests in different areas around Argostoli, and the volunteers are all eager to find their first nest.