Turtles and festivals of peace

Barcelona’s Forum will resort to anything now to get anyone, anywhere to take an interest, so yesterday a bunch of children who are being held for commercial purposes by the organisation were made to release two sea turtles into the Med. Cute, except that this section of the coastal waters is so full of junk that the poor beasts will probably choke on a discarded condom and die, even before the fishing boats have a chance to poach them.

There’s another sea turtle story from Greece, where Cornelia Madden of Athens News says that the redirection of all cash to the Olympics and the refusal of government to prevent illegal holiday resort construction or comply with European directives may extinguish the Mediterranean’s last significant Caretta caretta breeding zone:

“The authorities don’t give a damn – everyone’s trying to ‘get away with murder’,” says [Lily Venizelos of the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles]. “We have found aborted eggs in front of the Louis Zante Beach Hotel in east Laganas – turtles only abort their eggs when conditions on shore are such that it is impossible for them to nest. Up to two years ago, around 12 nests per season were laid in front of the hotel; last summer there was not a single one.”

[…]

“It is one of the worst ecological scandals in Europe,” she concludes. “By the time the Olympics are over and the ministry finds time to discuss the problems on Zakynthos, the degradation of the most important loggerhead nesting area in the Mediterranean may be irreversible.”

I say sod em, let’s hang on to the Elgin Marbles.

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