Zakynthos - Sea turtles

We anchored in the bay of Laganas and while we were anchoring, we suddenly heard a puff coming from the water. It turned out to be a sea turtle that swam at the back of the ship and came up for a moment. We were surprised, because we knew that this bay was famous for sea turtles, but we did not expect to see one right away. And it was impressive, because the sea turtle was at least 1 meter long and weighed 80kg, which means that she is certainly more than 50 years old. The sea turtles have become the symbol of Zakynthos, they are called Caretta caretta and can grow up to 1.20 meters and weigh 100 kg. They mainly eat jellyfish, shellfish and seaweed. The breeding season runs from May to August. Females come ashore at night to lay their eggs in holes, after which they cover them with sand. A nest can contain up to 100 eggs. After about 60 days the young turtles hatch. They navigate to the sea by following the moonlight. The caretta caretta is very threatened by pollution, fishing and tourism. We spent 3 days in the bay, saw a sea turtle behind our boat a few times every day, but often 8 tourist boats immediately came to see the turtle very close as it tried to swim to the beach.