Loggerhead turtle nest

Loggerhead turtle nest on Greek beach

This is something I wanted to share. On the beach of south Peloponnese, near Koroni village, I’ve seen a lot of such markings and fencing. This is a nest of the endangered Loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta.
Volunteers (Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature) search the coastline daily for new nests and properly register them, mark them with especially made blue-white poles, insert a wire mesh over the nest and put a warning sign in Greek, German and English. The mesh is providing effective protection against predators, like foxes or domestic dogs and others, but it’s openings are big enough the newly hatched turtles to go through.
The incubation period is about 50 days. On the 43rd day the volunteers return to the nest and establish a fence, bordering a path straight to the water. Usually the turtles hatch during the night, before sunrise and orientate to the moon light. Unfortunately on the frequently visited beaches there are many parasitic lights (camp fires, window lights form the nearby houses and villas, camping tourists torches, etc.) which may confuse turtles and they go in opposite direction and perish. That’s why such paths are built at each nest.
These guys over there are doing great job! There were about 40 nests only on this beach, and more than 400 along the coastline in the area. According to the observations done only 1 of 1000 hatchlings survives!!!