Zakynthos Informer Zakynthos Informer
Related Articles
A recent study took place regarding the island’s endangered loggerhead sea turtles. The study also looked at whether pressure from mass tourism creates an issue for the turtles, their breeding habitats, and their nesting sites across the Mediterranean throughout the summer months.
The recently published paper includes data about Zakynthos and sets out an abstract of the effect of mass tourism in the summer months on turtles that choose to nest on Zakynthos. The study results look at the extent to which Loggerhead Sea Turtles detect and respond to human presence.
It’s estimated a normal tourist season on Zakynthos Island sees approximately 850,000 visitors to the island during the summer months. This tourism season clashes with the optimum time for loggerhead sea turtles visiting the island to try and nest.
Whilst COVID-19 was having an effect on human life and business from May to June in 2020, researchers were given an opportunity to look at how a change of this type, human presence on the island throughout the summer months, affected the turtle population.
In previous years, notably 2018 and 2019, a programmed unmanned aerial survey took place on Zakynthos. This survey noted that turtles appeared to act differently during summers of high season and lots of visitors. Distinct changes were noted around breeding and the use of sea depths. In 2018 and 2019 the data shows that turtles went further out into the sea and swam at deeper depths. It was thought initially it may have been something to do with changes in sea temperature.
The 2020 data however was very different, in 2020 approximately 50% of turtles stayed within 100 metres of the Zakynthos shore, even when the sea temperature rose. This new study and the data that has come with it shows that turtle’s actions during the summer months are very different when there are more people around.
It’s possible that in the future a coastal refuge zone with fixed boundaries or limits could be implemented for the months of May and June, where infrastructure is minimal but where the turtles frequently make their homes and lay their nests. The report concluded that these sea turtles can feel changes inhuman pressure at varying scales, thereby making them act differently.
From this report and other reports that were done across the Mediterranean, it’s shown that human actions DO affect sea turtles. It also shows that there are repercussions of mass tourism when it comes to our wildlife. Notably, our own sea turtles do seem to be heavily affected by the numbers of people using the beaches and the sea in the Laganas Bay Area.
How this will affect how the Bay operates in the future, however, none of us knows but this important study is a small snapshot that’s gone to prove that whilst there were fewer people using Laganas Bay in 2020, the famous sea turtles of Zakynthos benefited more from fewer people and were more relaxed in their environmental surroundings.
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.13277
Turtle images courtesy of: Kostas Papafitsoros
Map: Courtesy of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos
To get up-to-date news or more information about Zakynthos, join our Facebook group or follow our Twitterfeed.
All articles on this blog are the property of the authors and The Zakynthos Informer. No articles are to be reproduced, copied, or screenshot without the permission of the author.
