Making the beach safe for nesting turtles

EPISKOPI Turtlewatch held its sixth annual beach clean programme with a major clean up of Curium Beach last weekend.

A record number of participants were willing to sacrifice their morning and between them removed several hundred bags of rubbish from the waterfront. The rubbish haul included fishing nets, tractor tyres, televisions and three piece suites, but “thankfully for the first time in three years there were no dead turtles” a statement from Turtlewatch said.

Support came from many sectors of the community including the Cyprus Young Greens, Friends of the Earth, Terra Cypria and Cyprus Women of Today. Sodexo Cyprus and Episkopi council supplied the clean up materials and donated manpower to ensure that all collected rubbish was safely removed for disposal.

“Turtles will soon be coming into shallow water and ashore to nest both in the Episkopi area and at Akrotiri,” a spokesperson for Episkopi Turtlewatch said. “By removing a large volume of the rubbish in the Curium Bay area we are aiming to reduce the hazards involved in making this journey. Gratifyingly although the volume of rubbish collected here is always massive we have, over the past six years, seen an improvement in the overall quality of our beaches.”

Loggerhead and Green turtles nest in the Episkopi area and both are classified as endangered species.

For more information about conservation efforts in the area click on the Episkopi Turtlewatch website www.episkopiturtlewatch.com or email [email protected].

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