Amvrakikos gulf is one of the most important feeding grounds for sea turtles Caretta caretta. Each year almost 500 of these marine reptiles come to the gulf and spend almost all summer here as they are attracted from the abbundance of food resources.
Unfortunately every year approximately 80-100 loggerhead turtles are found injured and dead. Every time we come across an injured animal we do our best to help it. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes no.
Last summer we spot 3 injured turtles during our cruises. The animals that needed assistance were picked up onboard. They were covered with wet towels and put in a safe place where they couldn’t injure more themselves. Our guests were really excited to see close up these amazing animals.
When we returned to port the representative of EKPAZ (Wild animal health care center) was waiting to pick up the animals to transport them to the Sea turtle Rescue center. Our guest gave a name to the animals, so few months later we were informed that 2 of them, Markos and Odysseas, had recovered from their injuries and were released successfully back in to the wild. This summer with the invaluable cooperation of the port authority we are also collecting samples from the dead turtles in order to analyze the data and hopefully we can promote research on these wonderful marine reptiles.
