"Turtles in Trouble"

A short animated training DVD for UK tour representatives and another for tourists in the Mediterranean has been produced by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS UK) with MEDASSET's cooperation. The DVD is being funded by the Travel Foundation and produced by Juniper Blue animators. The Travel Foundation will distribute the DVD at Mediterranean holiday destinations this spring through dedicated workshops, to teach tour reps about turtle-friendly actions they and their customers can take to mitigate tourism impacts on turtles and nesting beaches in the Mediterranean. The film is available at:
www.juniperblue.com/travelfoundation/Turtles and Tourists.mov

"Small Garbage"

Every year in addition to the 150 million people living along the Mediterranean coastline, over 200 million tourists contribute to over 15 million tons of garbage. Garbage is becoming an overwhelming threat to this fragile ecosystem as the waters of this beautiful "enclosed sea" take more than 100 years to renew.

"Small Garbage", the small pieces of personal waste, casually discarded on beaches or directly into the sea have devastating effects on the marine environment. Each year it is estimated that 6.4 million tons of 'small' and 'large' garbage are dumped into the world's oceans and seas. Besides looking unsightly, garbage represents a considerable hazard to both people and marine wildlife. Entanglement and ingestion of "Small Garbage", accounts for the deaths of over 100,000 sea mammals and sea turtles in the world each year.

Our latest "Small Garbage" leaflet has just been finalised in both English and Greek, contributing to our educational campaigns with schools. This informative leaflet can be viewed here or contact us if you are interested in receiving copies.

"Hitting on" EuroTurtle

Euroturtle, Europe's first educational website for the conservation and biology of sea turtles, is an ongoing joint project between MEDASSET and Dr. Roger Poland, King's College, Taunton UK. We are happy to announce that 2006 saw 202, 837 visitors up from 187, 245 in 2005. With the diverse range of interesting and educating graphics, diagrams, work-sheets and online activities, EuroTurtle has been listed as a link on an array of websites from the State of the World's Sea Turtle site to the Australian Department of Environment and Water Resources! To visit the website please visit: www.euroturtle.org.

"Mediterranean Marine Turtle Action Plan" Under the Barcelona Convention, an Action Plan for the conservation of sea turtles in the Mediterranean was adopted in 1989. This Action Plan seeks to address serious threats facing sea turtles and identifies priorities and measures to mitigate the population decline. MEDASSET attended a Meeting of Sea Turtle Specialists held in Libya on the 14-16th November 2006 to discuss further modifications to this Action Plan, paving the way for future sea turtle research and monitoring efforts. Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) The ICZM Protocol draft being developed within the framework of the Barcelona Convention will be finalised next June. In a 3rd meeting in Loutraki, Greece on February 12-15th in which MEDASSET participated, further progress was made to the development of this Protocol.