Rehabilitation of Injured Sea Turtles in Athens, Greece

The project was held at ARCHELON’s Sea Turtle Rescue Centre, where injured or sick sea turtles are sent from all over Greece for treatment and rehabilitation.

The Sea Turtle Rescue Center is placed in one of most well-known and popular suburbs of Athens, there is permanent cooperation with the local Municipality and the area is attracting a lot of tourists.

The volunteer, Benjamin Schmidt was involved in the project activities as following: He was applying the daily treatment of the animals medication, feeding and supporting the National Stranding Network, providing information to the public ( he had the chance in numerious occasion to communicate with tourists who were visiting the Rescue Center ) and he was helping to keep scientific data on the relevant databases.

The project provided to the volunteer the opportunity to work directly for the conservation of a protected marine species, to promote the importance of protecting the marine and coastal environment, and to acquire knowledge that can make young people adopt a friendlier attitude towards the environment. He also learned to respond to crisis situations, like to coordinate the transport of injured sea turtles to the Rescue Centre.

The local community was also benefited by the conduct of the project since the protection of sea turtles is helping in the conservation of natural environment in their area.