National Marine Park of Zakynthos — Attraction in Zakynthos Municipality

Beach that unfortunately has lost a lot of its beauty due to mass tourism:

1. 80% of the endangered loggerhead sea turtles nest on this island, but females floating on the water surface of this warm shallow bay get constantly distracted by way too many observation boats, sometimes even injured. Minimum distances, minimum observation times, etc. are often not respected, let alone a limitation of boats or a requirement for turtle experts on boat.
2. The beaches – nesting ground for the turtles – are not protected enough. Some are officially closed down during the nesting time at night, but this is often not enforced. During daytime, tourists are often found too close to nests.
3. Light pollution – a deadly danger for the hatched baby turtles is regularly observed.
4. Beach erosion and with that habitat loss due to mass tourism can be observed

Fishing lines and nets, plastic pollution, beach erosion, invasive species like crabs eating their eggs and climate change are already a large enough thread for these precious animals that have been around for the last 250 million years, we do not have to add another one on top. I therefore recommend NOT visiting this beach (ideally not visiting any sandy beach during the nesting season from mid May - end August) but visiting turtle information centers instead.

Thanks for...

Water was so clear and warm. I had my shorty wet suit, but in the end it was more use as a floatation aid and sun-blocker......

No 🐢🐢 turtle's on my visit, but some interesting fish and small shoals of 'whutebait' type fish... But obvs I would not eat them!!

Saw a fish emerge out of hiding from the sand and a lone sea bass sized fish with black leading edges on bothe tail fins.... Not sure what it was.

It's a long time since I dived (my mask and snorkel are at least 30 year's old, but it made me want to get back to qualified level.....ready for retirement!

Visited again Wednesday (8th June) and the wind direction has changed so the visibility was poor. I will try the north of the island tomorrow whilst out and about in the car.

Zante is a beautiful island with great people, weather and reasonably priced food and drink. The beaches are relatively clean, but I would comment that 'they' need to contain bins and recycling as many bottles and boxes get strewn around......we need to make sure the beaches and the turtle 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 breeding grounds stay free of our...

The national marine park of zakynthos is a disgrace. Hundreds of turtle spotting tours daily, revving and harassing poor turtles, cutting them off from going peacefully about their business. Many of the boats are old and smokey and cast fumes all over the place. Boats then deliberately take tourists to the turtle island and strand them for an hour to swim, right on the same beach where turtles have nested. Tourists leave their litter, bottles, nox cylinders, wet wipes and plastic packaging. A real shame. Not evident that profits from the very many tour operators ever find the way back to anything related to the conservation of the area or this vulnerable species of...