Zakynthos Project
The Ionian island of Zakynthos (western Greece) has the largest Mediterranean nesting (the second one being in Kyparissia bay). Because of this, Zakynthos has been chosen to host the original project. The group's founders, Dimitris and Anna Margaritoulis, began collecting data here in the late 1970s and from those initial studies the group grew.
Today the project continues to be the largest in scope of all the Archelon projects. There are 6 beaches on the island that are monitored by the group, all of which are in Laganas Bay to the South. These beaches are Gerakas, Daphni, Sekania, Kalamaki (Crystal beach), Laganas and Marathonissi, a small uninhabited island in the bay. All of the beaches apart from Sekania are heavily used by tourists. Sekania is specially protected due to its very high density of nests and, therefore, its importance as a nesting area. It is completely closed to visitors. The protection of all the beaches and the waters in the bay are implemented by the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. The land behind Sekania was bought by the WWF in order to prevent construction of any kind which may disturb the turtles nesting behaviour.
In 2014 the group has reported a nest count of 1066 nests on the 6 beaches. In addition its public awareness activities have informed approximately 63,600 people, mostly tourists.