Cyprus Mail 26 July 2019 - article by Lizzie Ioannidou
Baby turtle making its way to the sea after hatching
Experts carrying out a sea turtle protection programme at a protected beach in Argaka, were on Thursday prevented by community leader Spyros Pelopidas and several locals from placing cages above nests.
Pelopidas along with Argaka locals, some of whom were dressed in military fatigues, once again obstructed the experts from placing special aluminum cages above nests to protect turtle eggs and hatchlings from foxes.
The latest obstruction to the implementation of the programme, funded by the Council of Europe, came exactly one week after Pelopidas stormed down to the protected beach, beneath the Santa Barbara restaurant, and picked a fight with local and foreign sea turtle protection workers.
During the previous week’s incident, Pelopidas and Argaka residents, verbally attacked the experts on the grounds there were fewer sea turtles than the group made arrangements for. They accused the conservationists of placing more cages on the beach than were necessary in order to collect more money from the fisheries department.
According to witness reports, on Thursday one of the experts from abroad was surrounded by four locals who demanded that he handed over his phone so that they could delete the pictures he took of Pelopidas and his ‘army’ preventing them from doing their work.
After managing to install a small number of cages, the experts left the beach, fearing things could turn nasty.
They subsequently reported the mayor’s actions to local police, who, allegedly, took the side of Pelopidas and asked them to hand over their personal details. These, the police said, would be given to the mayor so that he could take legal action against them for filming and taking photographs of the heated conversations on the Argakas beach.
The experts told one newspaper that in addition to the behaviour by the mayor, the stance taken by police was also part of the problem regarding sea turtle protection in Argakas.
Several beaches along the Argakas community coast in the Paphos district are part of the Polis-Yialia special area of conservation protected by the European Natura 2000 legislation as an important breeding site in the Mediterranean for the endangered Loggerhead (Caretta Caretta) and Green turtles (Chelonia mydas).
The area has been a constant source of concern for environmental groups because of the illegal construction of beach bars and placement of sea beds and umbrellas on protected beaches.
