Volunteer with your family to conserve sea turtles in Greece

To all budding marine biologists and their families!  We are offering a family sea turtle conservation volunteer programme on the island of Kefalonia in Greece where turtles comes to nest each year.

This is one of our most popular family volunteer programmes which forms part of our research and conservation work to protect sea turtles and the coastal ecosystems in Kefalonia.

We are offering families a one week (6 day) programme which includes:

• turtle nesting beach surveys (early morning starts)
• harbour surveys of the turtle population
• an evening or night time turtle nest monitoring shift
• snorkelling surveys of sea grass meadow and
• a coastal clean-up.
• These activities will be alongside interesting and interactive presentations throughout the week as well.

Families with children aged 7 years and upwards are most welcome to join.  Many families opt to do this as part of their own holiday in Kefalonia, where you will join in on our family itineraries from Thursday to Tuesday inclusive each day.  So the ideal would be to arrive Wednesday before latest and leave Wednesday after earliest.

Family Requirements:

• Able to walk along a beach for up to 2 km in sunlight
• Confident swimmer familiar with snorkelling (ideally can swim 25m unaided in depths of around 5m)
• Any health conditions must be discussed before signing up
• Minimum age 7 yrs old – One adult required per max 2 children under the age of 18.
• Families should bring their own correctly fitted snorkel masks.
• Please download the detailed requirements document, in particular for the snorkelling aspect Greece family programme requirements.

Watch this amazing video below to share with your kids. So they can see how baby turtles hatch out of their egg, crawl along the beach, and finally make it out to sea!

Details on the Sea Turtle Family Volunteering Activities:

Nesting Beach Survey, Nest Check, and Beach Clean 
Teams survey the beaches of Kefalonia to find and protect sea turtle
nests from May through early August. The team will arrive at the beaches in the early morning, walk along the beach looking for fresh turtle tracks, then locate, mark, measure, and protect all nests that were laid during the previous night. The primary goal is to protect sea turtle nests from accidental damage and monitor their progress. Nesting beaches can be up to 2 kilometres long and the team will also check existing nests and collect litter from the beach during or after the survey.

Evening or Night time Nest Monitoring 
Baby turtle hatchlings crawl to the brightest horizon, which is normally the moon and stars reflecting off the water, to find their way to the sea. During the evening or night time nest monitoring shift volunteers will protect nests from man-made light pollution – depending on the dates you will do either an evening or an night time nest activity. If hatching occurs (as with all nature & wildlife, this can’t be guaranteed), you will monitor the baby hatchlings and help the team to release them at a darker part of the beach so they can make their way to the sea on their own. This runs through the night and nests are checked every hour. In between nest checks, you can sleep on the beach in a sleeping bag under the stars! Younger children can just do part of the shift if it’s too tiring for them.

Snorkel Surveys

Seagrass meadows are a larger carbon sink than the rainforest and play a critical role in mitigating climate change. Teams will snorkel on the sea surface (no diving necessary) and will be monitored by both a land-based and a sea-based (paddleboard) safety supervisor. These areas are also utilised by many different species including sea turtles, monk seals and several types of fish.

Harbour Survey
Over 300 sea turtles swim in the Bay of Argostoli. Every morning, many of these turtles concentrate on the harbour front of Argostoli, where fishing boats return with the morning’s catch. During harbour surveys, researchers will observe these turtles and record information regarding their foraging and social behaviours.

Coastal Clean-up
Beach and coastal clean-ups show the impacts of our consumerism and the items we dispose of daily, while also making a difference by protecting the local wildlife and coastal areas and aiding in their restoration.

Presentations
The presentations given throughout the family programme will help inform each family member about our research and conservation methods and the importance of the work we are doing and why we do it.

For any children wanting to make presentations when they get back to school, this will be an ideal opportunity to take some notes!

For a detailed itinerary on the family volunteering dates we are offering, you can download the PDFs here:

2026 Greece Family Education Programme – Hatching Season Evening Nest Checks (includes evening nest monitoring activity)

2026 & 2027 Greece turtle Education Programme – Hatching Season Night Nesting Families (includes night nest monitoring activity)

Any further questions, please contact us at info@workingabroad.com