Written by: Geniko Lykeio Siteias
For seventeen years, the Volunteers for the Protection of the Sea Turtle Caretta caretta of Sitia [1] have walked the town’s beaches at dawn. From mid-May they look for the tracks of nesting females and mark every nest, so that the hatchlings can emerge safely about two months later [2]. Since 2009 the group has recorded and protected nests under the supervision of ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece [3].
Why a few nests matter. Sitia is not one of Greece’s major nesting areas: ARCHELON’s field projects cover some 75 km of the main nesting beaches, and sporadic nests elsewhere are recorded with the help of citizens [3]. In a warming Mediterranean such nests are no curiosity. Loggerheads are already expanding their nesting range westwards [4], and ARCHELON researchers recommend closer investigation of Aegean beaches with repeated sporadic nesting, which may reveal new regular sites [5] – the very evidence Sitia’s volunteers have gathered at Karavopetra and Analoukas [2, 3, 6]. And the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group regards the Mediterranean loggerhead’s recovery to “Least Concern” as entirely conservation-dependent [4].
Karavopetra: learning from a bad night. On this town beach the Municipality, the Sitia Geopark and the volunteers installed wooden posts in 2017 to keep vehicles off the sand [7]. Yet in August 2021 hatchlings from the only nest there followed the street lights instead of the sea, and several were crushed by cars – although the volunteers had shaded the nest and had warned about the lighting for two years [6]. Hatchlings crawl towards the lowest, brightest horizon, and artificial light can take the place of the sea [8]. One year later the lesson had been learned. The Municipality covered the beach lights, vehicles were kept out, sunbeds were removed every night and volunteers stayed on the beach until 6 a.m.; 84 hatchlings reached the sea. The excavation, carried out with ARCHELON’s project manager for Crete, counted 122 eggs, 104 of them hatched (85%) – the first nest ever excavated in Sitia, watched by the Mayor [3].
A wider circle of care. In June 2021 a loggerhead entangled in nets at Chiona was freed after locals alerted the Coast Guard and the group [7]. In November 2022 they rescued a newborn Mediterranean monk seal on Kouremenos beach, Palaikastro, and, guided by the monk-seal society MOm, sent it with the Coast Guard’s help to MOm’s care in Piraeus [9]. The group credits the return of seals and turtles to a change of attitude among local fishermen, after years in which both animals were persecuted [9]. Beach businesses have become partners as well: in July 2026 staff and volunteers freed a turtle trapped under sunbeds at Sitia Bay, and the group thanked the business for years of cooperation [10]. The remaining threats are just as local: in 2025 many nests were laid at Analoukas, a beach usually strewn with litter, and the hatchlings there failed to reach the water [2].
Learning on the beach. In April 2025 members Rodanthi Kassotaki and Nikos Marakis talked to second-graders of the 4th Primary School of Sitia about the loggerheads nesting on nearby beaches and about the monk seal [11]; during the 2025–26 school year pupils of the Special Primary School of Sitia joined the volunteers for an activity on the town beach [2]. A public hatchling corridor at Karavopetra, organised in September 2025 with the International Police Association of Lasithi, opened the experience to all citizens [2].
The Sitia group is citizen science in its most practical form: dawn walks, careful records, a call to ARCHELON, the Coast Guard or MOm, and patient conversations with the Municipality, beach businesses and children. Its story shows why local action matters for the whole Mediterranean: a recovering species stays recovered only while someone keeps watch – and on the beaches of Sitia, that someone is a group of neighbours.
Sources
[1] Εθελοντές προστασίας θαλάσσιας χελώνας καρέτα καρέτα Σητείας, Facebook page; posts quoted in [6], [7], [9], [10].
[2] Anatolh (Lasithi daily): reports on the Sitia volunteers of 13 Sept 2025, 29 May 2026 and 26 June 2026. anatolh.com
[3] ARCHELON (2022). A local group protects loggerhead sea turtle nests in Sitia, southeastern Crete, 29 Aug 2022. archelon.gr
[4] Hochscheid, S. et al. (2022). Nesting range expansion of loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean: phenology, spatial distribution, and conservation implications. Global Ecology and Conservation, 38, e02194.
[5] Margaritoulis, D. et al. (2025). Sporadic nesting records of the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta along the Greek shores of the Aegean Sea. Herpetological Bulletin, 172, 13–15.
[6] CNN Greece (2021). [Loggerhead hatchlings crushed by cars at Karavopetra, Sitia], 28 Aug 2021. cnn.gr
[7] Cretalive: [Municipality of Sitia protection actions at Karavopetra], 21 Apr 2017; [Volunteers save a sea turtle entangled in nets at Chiona], 24 June 2021. cretalive.gr
[8] Witherington, B.E., Martin, R.E. & Trindell, R.N. (2014). Understanding, Assessing, and Resolving Light-Pollution Problems on Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches (rev.). FWRI Technical Report TR-2.
[9] ERT News (2022). [Newborn monk seal found on Kouremenos beach, Palaikastro], 2 Nov 2022. ertnews.gr
[10] Skai Kritis (2026). [Loggerhead trapped under sunbeds at Sitia Bay], 18 July 2026. skaikritis.gr
[11] 4th Primary School of Sitia (2025). [Active Citizen actions – protecting the loggerhead sea turtle], 30 Apr 2025. blogs.sch.gr/4dimsiteira