Guardians of the Sea: A Summer of Impact and Adventure at a Greek Turtle Conservation Sanctuary!

Volunteering at a turtle sanctuary in Greece for 10 days last summer was an amazing experience. For as long as I can remember, I've had an unwavering passion for endangered species and have been especially fascinated by sea turtles. However, I never envisioned that I would get the opportunity to actively conserve and protect the most important nesting beaches for loggerhead sea turtles in Europe, especially as a high school student. So, when I learnt about the once in a lifetime opportunity I knew I had to seize it.

As I would soon learn, every year, loggerhead sea turtles migrate to Kefalonia to forage and reproduce. Females nest in Kefalonia on average five times in one breeding season. The nesting activity mainly occurs at night throughout the summer months. Each sea turtle lays about 100 eggs each time. However, only about one in a thousand hatchlings survives natural hazards and makes it to adulthood. Their survival is threatened by pollution (such as getting entangled in trash and ingesting plastics that look like jellyfish), getting tangled in fishing nets and tourism and coastal development that threatens their habitats and nesting beaches. Furthermore, artificial lights can cause turtles to lose orientation and not find the way to their nest anymore.

As soon as we arrived at our camp in Kefalonia, I worked tirelessly each day to ensure that the turtle nests were protected. I took part in a wide range of hands-on conservation and monitoring activities ranging from nest excavations and relocations, to early morning and evening surveys. Since the turtles lay their eggs at night, we had to wake up early to survey for fresh tracks to locate and protect the nests. Waking up at 5am was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The excitement for what awaited us on the beach was a huge incentive. As if that wasn't enough, the sunrise alone was magnificent enough to wake up for!

When we found fresh tracks, we followed them up the beach where the mother turtle tested out the sand to see if it was suitable for a nest. Sometimes the mother turtle

encountered man-made obstructions and returned to the sea. Other times, there appeared to be a camouflaged nest and we dug carefully into the sand until we located a turtle egg. Then we gently covered them up with sand, laid a metal grate over the nest, and surrounded it with bamboo poles to protect it from natural predators such as stray dogs or foxes and unsuspecting humans driving on the beach.

During my time at the camp, I also learnt how to collect light pollution data, which is vital to ensuring that hatchlings don't head inland, but instead follow the moon out to the sea. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to apply the knowledge and skills I learnt from the AP biology and honours chemistry class I took my freshman year of high school to my conservation efforts. For example, making observations and collecting, analysing and interpreting data.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was adapting to the sweltering heat. Since we slept in tents on the beach, we didn't have the benefit of air conditioning or even a fan. However, camping on the beach was such an immersive and hands-on experience that it was worth the discomfort. Although I was very saddened to observe the real dangers these sea turtles face due to humans, I am grateful for my new awareness of these dangers and that I was able to make a visible difference during my volunteering and stay at the camp.

My experience at the turtle sanctuary was one that I will always cherish. I highly recommend the experience to others. I not only learnt about the loggerhead turtle and conservation, climate change, pollution and marine biology, but also gained skills such as teamwork and collaboration. This academic year I continued my conservation journey by taking AP environmental science, which deepened my knowledge of human-made environmental problems and our impact on biodiversity.

Volunteering at the turtle sanctuary in Greece taught me a valuable lesson: each of us has the power to make a positive difference in causes we deeply care about. Although it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of environmental challenges we face today, by actively engaging in conservation efforts, our individual actions can have a profound impact. Whether it's cleaning up beaches, recycling, or volunteering our time to conservation projects we believe in, our contributions, no matter how small, accumulate to create a collective force for change.