As more disturbing news arrives from ZNMP, we are powerless, unable to stop the major ecological disaster that is currently taking place in Laganas Bay, internationally recognised as the main Loggerhead turtle nesting area of the Mediterranean. All of this during the first few weeks of the nesting season.

The Park’s staff remain unpaid in the eighth week of their withdrawal of labour. It is now ten months since they were last paid. Now extreme violations of the Park regulations are occurring endangering the very turtles meant to be protected.

This week’s report from Zakynthos states:

· Barriers to block beach access at night are locked away in the ZNMP office. Many people frequent the beaches during prohibited hours of the night, often with vehicles and flashlights, disturbing the nesting turtles. Due to this disturbance, many turtles return to the sea without nesting.

· On Marathonissi Islet two fishermen were seen setting up a 33m-long fishing net, only 20m from the shoreline, completely blocking turtle access to the nesting beach. They removed it only after Archelon (STPS) volunteers reported them to the Port Police. They are expected to keep trying.

· So far, three dead loggerhead turtles have washed ashore, one a perfectly healthy male showing clear evidence of entanglement by the buoy line of a pedalo boat.

· There are eyewitness accounts of cruelty to the turtles on the beaches of East Laganas and Kalamaki. Often locals grab them from the water and wave them about in the air to show to tourists. One turtle spotting boat sped towards a turtle, backed the engine towards it and grabbed it for show.

· Bags of garbage in Sekania, collected during an Archelon (STPS) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) clean-up effort, were not removed from the beach for two weeks, obstructing the turtles from nesting.

· It was announced in the local press (12/6/04) that the obsolete biological treatment plant above the nesting beaches, will not be refurbished to operate for another two years as previously announced, but will remain and in operation in its present condition throughout the nesting and hatching season, continuing to pollute the bay for turtles and beach-goers alike.

· It is also reported in the local press that the head of the Land Planning Office has confirmed that there are many illegal blocks of beach furniture in Kalamaki and East Laganas.

· Sand extraction has resumed behind the nesting beaches of Kalamaki.

· Archelon (STPS) foreign volunteers are being told by locals, “Go back where you came from. The ZNMP is finished. The beaches are ours again now.”

Attached are a series of photographs documenting some of the latest illegal activities on the nesting beaches of Laganas Bay. The pictures were taken at dawn because the photographer was afraid of being attacked by locals as has often happened before.

It is clear that the provisions of the European Commission Directive are not being implemented or even considered by the Greek State. Turmoil and chaos reign in Laganas Bay, as the list of ZNMP violations continues to lengthen.

So much for Zakynthos being a refuge and sanctuary for the endangered Mediterranean sea turtles.

Sincerely,

Lily Venizelos,

President MEDASSET