“The most important beaches were afforded projection in 1997 and we have transformed from being a seasonal project looking at the nesting beaches to being a year-round project that also works with fisheries and by-catch issues. Around 100 volunteers take part each year now including Exeter students – over the years around 450 have volunteered on the project, providing them with a really great hands-on conservation experience.

“Alagadi beach, which is the main study site, is an interesting case study where turtles and humans share the same habitat. The beach is heavily used by people during the day time, but at night time it is closed to the public and the turtles come to nest and it actually works well. In some places in the Mediterranean this is problematic because people put up sunbeds and umbrellas which cool the incubating nests. Or they might even push an umbrella down in to the nests. But one of the great things in Cyprus is the sand is so hot in summer, you can’t really sit or walk on it so people tend to sit down by the water’s edge where there are no nests. So, humans use the area below the high water mark and the turtles use the space above it. It’s a really nice division!”

Most of the income for the project is generated from volunteer donations and tourism, which meant the COVID-19 pandemic hit the conservation efforts hard. The team launched their first ever crowdfunder and hundreds of donors, including many alumni, raised more than £23,000 to keep the project going in 2020.

Annette says: “There was just no funding at all during 2020 and the project couldn’t have continued. Without people’s generosity there would have been a mass predation of all the eggs across the beaches (incubating eggs have wire screens placed about them to protect them from dog and fox predation) and very few hatchlings making it into the water that year.

“The crowdfunding paid for the vehicles and the fuel for Cypriot volunteers to get to the beaches and monitor the clutches. It meant basic activities could continue and we could complete three weeks of night work during the peak of nesting season. Our volunteers monitored and protected just over 2,400 turtle nests, recorded 265 turtles caught in fisheries or stranded on beaches and cleared more than three tonnes of plastic from key nesting beaches. We are so grateful to everyone who supported us, it really did make all the difference.”

In 2021 international volunteer numbers were low and the lack of tourism was still having an impact, with travel restrictions in place for much of the season. However, Annette and other members of the team from Exeter were able to visit and thanks to additional donations from Exeter alumni, including £10,000 from Roger de Freitas (Politics, 1971), the operational costs of monitoring the beaches were covered. The partners involved in the project are now thinking ahead to the 2022 season and beyond to ensure this critical research can continue to expand.

Annette says “Our long term aim is to try and get a network of marine protected areas to ensure turtles foraging around the coast are safeguarded. While some of the land areas have been protected since the start of the project, the marine environment isn’t particularly well protected or well documented.

“We currently have a PhD student, Josie Palmer, pulling together all the marine biodiversity data we have with a focus on turtles, habitats and fisheries. Hundreds of turtles are captured in the fishery each year and we need to understand more about why this happens in order to reduce this impact on these species. Things might look good now on the beach but if all the turtles get fished out there will be no nesting turtles in the future. That is the next step, understanding more about this situation and putting forward a proposal for a marine protected area, and I hope students and alumni will be keen to keep following our progress for years to come.”