Author: Madalin Miu

The second part of our Loggerhead Turtles of Zakynthos project was going to take us on a very interesting underwater adventure.

We went to the port of Agios Sostis on a beautiful September afternoon. This area is part of the Zakynthos National Marine Park and we’d just like to take this opportunity to say that The Wildlife Ecology Photography Association of Romania thanks the Management Agency of the Zakynthos National Park for granting us permission to photograph within the protected area of Laganas Bay.

Here we met our friend Anna Lamaj, Zakynthos Program Project Leader for the ARCHELON Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece. We grabbed our snorkeling gear and underwater photography equipment and started slowly descending towards the water. We geared up and entered the water near the famous rope bridge going from the port to Cameo Island. After the camera was all set up for the underwater conditions, we headed towards the golf looking for the infamous loggerhead sea turtles of Zakynthos.

We decided to split up to cover more ground and, no sooner than later, Anna signaled that she saw something. I swam towards her only to discover a loggerhead swimming gracefully away from us. I was trying to take some photos of the sea turtle when I suddenly heard a strange mechanical noise.

I emerged and saw a large boat circling around. It was one of those “Turtle Spotting Boat Tours” that was showing tourists around the turtle feeding/nesting areas. Anna told us that these kind of tours are very profitable, especially between June and July, when the loggerheads come to Zakynthos to lay their eggs. Sadly, when the sea turtles aren’t so plentiful, tour operators have to resource to tricks like feeding the turtles various vegetables, in order to keep them on the surface longer for tourists to experience them. Another problem is that there are more than one businesses offering these kind of tours and the turtles can feel harassed, not being able to get on peacefully with their daily activities.

The young male loggerhead finally got spooked by all the commotion and decided to dive underwater and take its leave. Anna suggested we swim around the port to see if we can find some more subjects for our underwater photography session. After 20 minutes of continuous exploring we came up with nothing and felt like giving up on the search. We decided to head once more around the area where we initially found the young sea turtle.

We were lucky. Just after a couple of minutes of looking around Anna, signaled that she found something. I swam enthusiastically towards her location and was amazed to see an adult male loggerhead sea turtle peacefully grazing.

I remembered what Anna explained to me about interacting with the turtles in the wild: ”In order not to disturb the turtle, we should not get closer than 10m. We should also avoid approaching it from the front because it’s an animal in the wild and we don’t want it to feel stress it in any way.”

With this in mind, I started circling around the turtle trying to get as many interesting photo angles as I could. The male loggerhead continued to feed and did not seem to be disturbed by our presence. Their diet includes items like jellyfish, algae, vascular plants and even fish. I took my time and experimented with various camera settings and compositions, in order to get as many relevant photographs out of this encounter as I could.

We decided to head for shore and leave the turtle to enjoy its meal. The sun was starting to set as we emerged from the water in awe of what we have just experienced. We thanked Anna once more for her support and discussed the final details of our project. We then set off to search for a new wildlife photography adventure.

We were really happy to document the loggerhead sea turtles of Zakynthos and we hope that the little we have done to raise awareness will have an impact on the further protection efforts of this endangered species. We couldn’t have done this without the support of the ARCHELON Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece and we’d like to personally thank Anna Lamaj, Zakynthos Program Project Leader. If you would like to help, you could by doing the following:

● Buy a souvenir

● Be a supporter or adopter

● Make a small donation

● TAG your memories

● Join one of the volunteering teams next summer and experience the turtles for yourself.