The work we do

The organization I have been working for is called the Katelios Group and is a private NGO dedicated to conservation, with a specific interest in the Loggerhead turtle, Carretta Carretta. The main sector of the group is this work with turtle conservation. Each summer about 15, usually foreign, volunteers come each month to help with taking care of nesting turtles and informing the public about conservation efforts. There are multiple other programs on other islands that are similar but I chose Katelios because it is small and locally started.

As volunteers, we all live together in a campsite and had one to two work shifts per day, determined by the rota, which equaled out to between 4 and 8 hours of work per day and one day off per week.

The main shifts that you could have are beach patrol shifts. 1) Mounda Morning: consists of walking Mounda beach to the cape and back looking for tracks, picking up trash along the way, and putting out information signs about turtles. 2) Mounda Evening: same walk down Mounda and back looking for tracks, knocking down sand castles and talking to tourists about Carretta Carretta. 3) Night Patrol: walking Mounda from dark to dawn back and forth looking for nesting turtles, stoping for 30 min naps each time you reach one end (these shifts only lasted the first couple nights we were there because you stop night patrol during hatchling season August to October). 4) Koroni: you take a bus about 15 minutes to the town of Platias, walk about 40 min down to Koroni Beach, walk Koroni beach looking for tracks, get the kayaks, kayak to Lefkas Beach, walk Lefkas, and then you have a steep 30-40 min hike back up to the main road to hitch hike home. For each of the patrol shifts when you find tracks (hatchling tracks), you record various things (which nest, how many hatchlings, location of nest, etc) and then wipe out the tracks so they wont get counted again by the next patrol shift.

The next type of shift is information/education shifts. 1) Environmental Center: sit at the desk of the environmental center where people can come to explore various displays about turtles and the environment and ecology in Kefelonia. 2) Skala and Katelios info tables: set up a table with info and signs about Carretta Carretta and the Katelios Group; people passing by (mostly tourists) stop to ask generally where they can see turtles and we inform them we are just a conservation group not an agency that takes people to see turtles... but occasionally people are genuinely interested in the work we do.

Finally, the last shifts are part of living at the campsite and include buying, preparing, and serving lunch or dinner for 15-20 people, and camp cleaning, ie. washing dishes after every meal, taking the trash to the bin, and cleaning the bathroom.

This month (August) we also had some extra shifts in order to put on the annual environmental festival that Katelios does. The festival happens 2 weekends in August and includes sport events, games for kids, presentaitons about sea turtles and a play about sea turtles starring the lovely volunteers of the Katelios Group.

August is also the start of excavations of hatched nests. After the last hatchlings have left a nest, we wait 10 days and then dig the nest up. We record hatched vs. unhatched eggs vs. hatchlings dead and alive. If we find live hatchlings (which you usually do) you give them time to dig their way out, interfereing as little as possible. The little hatchlings are smaller than the palm of your hand and rediculously precious though.

Also, we sometimes get aclls to deal with things like injured or dead turtles that wash up on the beach. This month we had to go take care of a dead turtle that washed up on a nearby beach. Myself and one other volunteer went to the beach, found the turtle, recorded size, gender and overall appearence and then burried it at the back of the beach, all while trying not to gag from the horrible smell radiating off of it. This particular turtle had been dead quite some time, but injured turtles will often be transported to the turtle hospital in Athens.

When all the work is finished, there is always still time for swimming, or just lounging in a hammock in the shade...