Hi Joanne....
was this supposed to be in the Zante beaches thread.. ..

There's too many sunbeds and shades on the beaches..

http://tofino.ex.ac.uk/euroturtle/medas/press_photos/

There are restrictions along the laganas beach where the sand dunes start. past this point there aren't supposed to be any sun beds but it looks like this is being ignored.

we used the beach past this point and just used the roll up mats made from (edit) grass or straw and then put a towel on them.. they cost about € 3 from most shops and about the easiest thing to use..

paul..

your right wudja cudja it was supposed to be on zante beaches sorry had a bad day but never mind at least i got a response. Those pics were very interesting to look at and yes i feel sorry for the turtles but it must be the greeks that are doing this to the area and of course the tourists are following it through by using the sun beds, at the same time unfortunatley I have to lie on sunbeds i`ve tried the lilos and grass mats but always end up having a fainting attack (something like that ) sounds silly i know but on 3 seperate occassions i have used this method it as happened when spoke to doctor back home he seems to think my body is absorbing the heat from the sand and its heat exhaustion i drink plenty of water and slap on cream and wear a hat but on a sunbed this never happens, waffled on a bit there sorry again.

You seem to know alot about zante is this where you holiday all the time or is it just the turtles that take your interest can you actually watch the turtles come a shore at night or is that just when they are nesting?

Joanne

Please don't think that this is meant as a personal attack on you, but hopefully it might make anyone who's going to Laganas think twice before using the sunbeds on the turtle nesting beaches. If nobody used them the locals would soon stop trying to rent them out.

You obviously have a valid reason for using sunbeds and nobody can blame you for that, but you do have a choice of which beaches to use them on. Unfortunately, the turtles don't have that choice - they are forced by instinct to return to the same beach that they were hatched on in order to lay their own eggs.

As for watching them come ashore at night, please take the time to read this article about why loggerhead turtles are an endangered species - http://www.foi.org.uk/pdf/wildlife/turtles.pdf

Elaine

No affence taken Elaine, but are all the beaches in laganas supposed to be "turtle friendly" or just certain ones if there are any which are they and what bars, hotels, apartments etc face on to them i`ve never been obviously and wouldn`t want to spend the day walking up and down the front in the heat (hopefully) in July/august finding one any help would be most appreciated thanks Joanne

Sorry Joanne, it's over 20 years since I went to Laganas and I don't think there were any sunbeds then, nor many bars or apartments along the beach! But according to Paul's post above, sunbeds are ok to use up to where the sand dunes start.

Hi xenosuk
You are so lucky to have visited back then (it was all built up by the time i manage to get there).. Turtle protection started back around that time culminating in 1995/6 with the bombing of the offices of STPS and Zakynthos Ecological Movement.

http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=414&journalID=61

For many years the various societies had seen the development of Laganas increasing with no regard for the natural habitats of wildlfe in the area but, with the posibillity of landowners not being able to build on their prized plots near the beaches it was a rough time for environmentalists.

In a perfect world there should be a 500 metre buffer between the shoreline and any development and this saves the natural beauty of a beach and the flora & fauna but, Laganas is way past saving and only the area of the dunes remains which is again under threat.

If i was King of zante i'd call in the bulldozers.. ..

paul..

Yes, Zakynthos was a very different island in those days and I have many fond memories of my 6 visits there back in the 80's.

I think the problem is that in Greece so many different people have stakes in relatively small plots of land, that it makes it virtually impossible to co-ordinate projects of this nature, where a fairly large chunk of land is needed to be set aside. It's very sad, but people's need to make money will always take priority over ecological concerns. You only have to look at the rainforests to realise that, even with massive publicity and international pressure groups, there are still people intent on destroying their natural environments.