OUR LATEST NEWS – May 9, 2024

Although the weather in Kefalonia has been grey and rainy for a couple of days our volunteers have spent plenty of time outdoors playing rounders, and volleyball and enjoying smores in our activity nights! We also held a quiz night one evening which included volunteers and our core team participating with special prizes! The volunteers are looking forward to celebrating the Greek Orthodox Easter, with the chance to get their hands on some easter chocolate and seeing some of the celebrations and festivities in Argostoli over the weekend!

Our other volunteers have been busy doing beach cleans at some of the nesting beaches! This ensures Kefalonian beaches remain clean for the beginning of nesting season which is expected to begin shortly. These cleans are an important shift as they remove smaller plastics and larger objects from the beaches.

This group of volunteers have seen record numbers of turtles seen in our CMR programme this week. In addition, we have been lucky to measure three green sea turtles. Green sea turtles don’t nest on the beaches around Kefalonia, but they do come to the island to forage. Rule, our biggest known Loggerhead turtle in the harbour, was measured and released, allowing volunteers to see how big loggerheads are capable of growing. He was released into the sea upon measuring and we hope to see him in or around the harbour in the future!

Last week one of our known loggerhead turtles, Dalma was spotted struggling to swim. Our team rescued her as she was observed with buoyancy issues and covered in algae. After taking a blood sample and having X-rays taken, she was found to have ingested fishing hooks and a low blood value. After further examination by our vet, she was sent to Archelon’s rescue centre in Athens for further care. She is now being monitored carefully and making improvements. We hope to see Dalma happy and healthy in the future!