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MEDASSET
(Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles)
Who
are they?
The aims of the organisation are to conserve and protect the remaining Mediterranean Sea Turtle populations and their Marine Ecosystems, through scientific research programmes (both coastal and off-shore), education, political liaison, publicity and fund-raising. MEDASSET endeavours to bring together other NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and universities for international co-operation.
In 1997, MEDASSET in collaboration with the Naples Stazione Zoologica, "Anton Dohrn", released "Paola" (an incidentally caught turtle, rehabilitated and fitted with a satellite transmitter) from the Greek island of Kefalonia. A month after her release "Paola" was caught in the nets of a Greek fisherman who cut her free. "Paola" became an international celebrity, and in 1999, featured in a GPI exhibition at the National Science Museum in London.
Summer 1999 will follow on line through "EuroTurtle", in collaboration with
Marine Turtle Research Group of the University of Wales, and the British Chelonia
Group, the satellite tracking of a transmitter equipped green turtle released
from the beaches of Cyprus, where MEDASSET has supported research work
since 1993. The mystery of the turtles life has long puzzled biologists; many
questions still remain about the lives of these strange, charismatic and vulnerable
creatures:
Sea turtles are known from the results of tagging to travel large distances,
crossing both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Tagging however depends
largely on chance encounters with tagged turtles. Satellite tracking aims
to reveal more about the movement of turtles as they go about their daily
lives, in order to make their protection more effective.