A lecturer at Falmouth Marine School has spent a month carrying out conservation work in Greece with the aim of protecting sea turtles, whose future is being put at risk by rubbish dumped at sea and on beaches and by over-development on land.

Rachel Green, a marine science lecturer, volunteered with the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, ARCHELON. She said: “The work being carried out in Greece is spread across a number of projects in specific areas where the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. The aim is to protect populations by looking after turtles when they are nesting and then protecting the hatchlings to ensure they survive.”

Since 1983, the primary objective of ARCHELON has been to protect the sea turtles and their habitats in Greece through monitoring and research, developing and implementing management plans, habitat restoration, raising public awareness and rehabilitating sick and injured turtles.

Rachel added: “I was lucky to secure some funding from the New Engineering Foundation who covered all of my costs for the trip. I was working on a site at Kyparissia Bay; it was a very hands-on project working in teams with other volunteers, a lot of whom who were the same age as my students.

“Our role was to monitor the beach for turtle tracks on the sand and then following them to identify if there had been any nesting activity. If we found an egg chamber we had to take measurements and log a satellite position; we then covered the nest with a metal cage to protect the eggs and put up signs to warn members of the public. We then monitored the site until their predicted hatch date.

“It was amazing the first time I saw a turtle laying her eggs I almost cried, it was so beautiful. If you can imagine there are only two of you on the beach with very little light and the stars really stand out, which is really beautiful anyway and then these creatures appear. They are so magnificent in a slow and stately way; it’s overwhelming watching something that has occurred in the same way for thousands of years.”