Woman bitten by turtle at Marathi
A woman swimming at Marathi on Akrotiri was attacked by a large sea turtle on the evening of Tuesday 16th July. According to Haniotika Nea, the incident occurred close to the shore near some rocks and the woman was injured on the legs, the turtle biting her in two different places. She was taken to a private clinic in Chania where she was given a tetanus shot and received first aid. There was a similar incident a week later when a swimmer was again attacked at Marathi on the morning of 23rd July. The woman managed to swim ashore and get medical help by herself as the bite was not deep.

This is not the first time that swimmers have been attacked by turtles in Crete. In August 2021, a local woman swimming at Hersonissos and a tourist both received bites. As reported by the news site Greekcitytimes.com, Lydia Koutrouditsou, head of the Archelon Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, said at the time: “Usually these incidents occur when local businesses or fishermen discard food or shake out their nets or deliberately try to feed the turtles in order [for them to be] seen by the public.” She advised people not to approach the creatures so that they would not feel threatened.

Other incidents have occurred fairly regularly elsewhere on the Greek islands and the mainland, and have generally been associated with people feeding the turtles.

Please don’t feed the turtles
Following the incidents at Marathi, the head of the Archelon programme in Crete Giorgos Vrabas appealed to the public not to feed the sea turtles. In a statement at the Chania city hall, Mr Vrabas said that incidents of attacks by sea turtles are very rare and explained that “In all the cases where sea turtles attack bathers, we see the same circumstances: people are feeding the sea turtles. When the public feed turtles they get used to being fed by humans and abandon their habits of searching for their own food, and when they see a human being they expect them to feed them. And if they don’t get fed they become aggressive.

“The only way to stop these incidents is for us to stop feeding the sea turtles, not only at Marathi but throughout Crete, and even the turtles which are in the old harbour in Chania. When this is stopped, then the attacks will also stop. Until then it is very important for bathers, when they see a turtle, whether at Marathi or elsewhere, to keep their distance, not to approach it, not to panic and simply to make slowly for the shore.”

He pointed out that feeding any wild creature is illegal, and while there are currently turtles here because it is the nesting season, they will shortly leave. And he emphasised: “Their natural way of feeding is to find their own food in the marine environment.”

Protecting the turtles’ beach environment
Archelon volunteers work each year to protect the turtles’ nesting patterns in Crete, logging the appearance of nests, and marking them to protect them from damage. Following the appearance of the first turtle nest at Gerani on 31st May, Archelon published advice based on the government regulations applying to the nesting beaches, established by a Joint Ministerial Decision in 2020, as follows:

– From 1st May to 31st October beach cleaning must be done only by hand. Heavy vehicles must not be used as they will destroy the nests.
– Vehicles are not allowed to enter or be driven on the beach.
– Sunbeds and umbrellas must be arranged in vertical lines at right angles to the sea with at least 3 metres between them. Sunbeds must be removed each night (at sunset) to leave space for the nesting turtles, in accordance with the law.
– The sand between items of beach furniture should not be covered with wooden walkways.
– Beach furniture should be cleaned somewhere away from the beach so as not to flood the nests, which will rot the eggs.
– Beach parties are not allowed.
– Human presence, noise and artificial light on the beach should be avoided during the hours of darkness.
– Remember that sea turtles live free in nature – do not feed them or touch them.
– Any marks left by turtles and hatchlings on the beach should be left untouched until Archelon’s researchers have recorded them in their daily checks.

Sea turtles in Greece
Populations of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta are on the rise in Greece, partly as a result of conservation efforts and partly through their nesting having received a respite during the pandemic from the normal disturbances of human activity on beaches. On Pachia Ammos beach at Stavros on Akrotiri, the number of nests identified in the month of June had reached 20, a record for the area.

According to Archelon, of the seven species of sea turtle in the world, only three are found regularly in the Mediterranean (Caretta caretta, Chelonia mydas and Dermochelus coriacea). Of these three species only Caretta caretta lays its eggs in Greece. The most important beaches for egg-laying are on Zakynthos, in the Peloponnese and, on Crete, at Rethymnon, the Gulf of Chania and the Gulf of Messara (off Matala and Agia Galini). The beaches of Zakynthos have a particularly high density of nests, and on the beach of Sekania the density can reach 1,500 per kilometre, one of the highest in the world.

Turtles which have been tagged in Greece have been found in a wide area of the Eastern Mediterranean, at distances of up to 1,500 km in Italian, Tunisian and Libyan waters, which indicates intentional rather than accidental movements. Most sightings have been in the Gulf of Gabes in Tunisia and in the northern Adriatic, a fact which means that these bays are areas for overwintering of turtles which lay their eggs in Greece. The most severe threats to Caretta caretta in the Mediterranean are tourist development on the nesting beaches and their getting caught in fishing gear.

According to Archelon, sea turtles “live in the marine environment where they mate, feed, migrate and overwinter”. The females always return to the same beaches to dig nests and lay their eggs, but the males never return to dry land. Little is known about the immature years of sea turtles. As soon as the eggs hatch, the hatchlings make for the sea, and for the first 24 hours they swim continually towards the open sea. Once there, they let themselves be carried by the currents.

Very little is known about what happens afterwards, until the time when they return to the nesting grounds to reproduce. It has been estimated that only one in a thousand hatchlings live to maturity. It is thought that during their pelagic stage they feed initially on plankton and insects, and subsequently on shellfish, molluscs and other organisms of the open sea. After the pelagic stage, sea turtles live in coastal waters, apart from Lepidocelys olivacea and the Dermochelus (leatherback) species, which remain pelagic throughout their lives.
(Haniotika Nea, 16-26/07)