Whilst diving at Kouzounos last Saturday (24-Nov-04) Spetses’ resident, Lakis Adamis was extremely surprised to come face to face with a giant sea turtle - the Loggerhead, also referred to as the Caretta caretta. The turtle was keeping very close to the shore, and seemed to be in distress, so Mr Adamis decided to call the local port police to see if they could help.

Impromptu Field Studies!A little while later, the port police arrived and liaised by ‘phone with the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre in Glyfada (a seaside suburb of Athens). This rescue centre was founded by The Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece (STPS) and cares for about 50 injured and sick turtles each year.

On their request, the port police took all the turtles’ measurements, carefully measuring from head to tail, and then the length and breadth of the shell. The shell length is the most important measurement, and this was found to be 70cm. The STPS have a tagging programme, with a special tag bearing a code and STPS’ address to identify individual turtles. However this particular Loggerhead was found to bear no such tag.

Nearly beachedThe turtle spent a while resting on the sand, with the waves gently lapping over it, until the local vet, Spiros Bellos arrived to give it a check up. He found that it was suffering from an eye infection. and after injecting it with a suitable anti-biotic, the Caretta was then gently eased back into the water, where it swiftly glided back out to the open sea.

Kouzounos - also known as Spanou - is on the south eastern headland of Spetses, directly opposite the privately owned island of Spetsopoula (translated as ‘little Spetses’) The waters are shallow, clear and blue and obviously provided a suitable resting place for the tired and sick turtle.

Even though one of the main nesting areas in Greece, is situated not too far away, at the Bay of Kiparissia and Bay of Lakonikos in the Peloponnese, it is not often that they are actually sighted on Spetses.

The Loggerhead turtle has become very popular and symbolizes all species threatened with extinction.

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