FOR thousands of young British tourists, the white sandy beaches and turquoise waters of the Ionian island of Zakynthos are the perfect setting for revelry and holiday romance. Each summer the coastline is transformed into an adult playground as tourists hold late-night beach parties before dancing in the clubs and bars.

Their antics, though, are threatening the survival of the loggerhead turtle, which has, since time immemorial, relied on the once tranquil coastline to complete its rather more sedate breeding pattern.

Now the European Commission is taking the Greek Government to court for failing to protect the unique habitat from the 200,000 British holidaymakers who visit the island each year.

A month after his appointment, Stavros Dimas, the EU Environment Commissioner, has threatened to impose a hefty daily fine on his country for failing to safeguard the environment needed for the turtle, known as the Caretta caretta, to thrive. He is awaiting a full written response from Greece about what it will do to save the turtles’ breeding grounds.

A European Court judgment three years ago condemned Greece for not protecting the breeding grounds, particularly at Zakynthos’s Laganas Bay.

The noise from beach parties and nightclubs is preventing turtles from crawling on to the sands to bury their eggs. Instead, many are releasing their eggs in the sea, where they will not hatch.

Those that do venture on to the beach guarantee their offspring only limited odds of survival. Some eggs are smashed as the sand is churned up by beach buggies, dug into by children or pierced by spikes from parasols.

The hatchlings that emerge after neary two months face further perils. Because the turtles rely on shimmering moonlight to guide their scamper to the sea, many are becoming disorientated by neon lights from nightlife and so head in the opposite direction, invariably to their deaths on busy roads.

So great was the concern for the survival of the species that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a campaign urging people to write to the Greek Prime Minister to express their concerns.

“A total of 11,000 e-mails were sent to the Greek Government,” Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of Species at WWF, said. “We are delighted that the EU has taken such decisive action against the Greek Government and now hope this will force it to finally act to protect the habitat of these endangered turtles.

“It is simply not acceptable that beaches once protected for turtles are now the domain of sunbathers, swimmers and ice cream vendors.”

Environmental campaigners in Greece are less optimistic.

“The situation at this stage could not be worse,” Lily Venizelos, president of the Mediterranean League for the Protection of Sea Turtles, said. She has been battling the political and tourism establishments for more than 20 years. The European Commission gave Greece a December deadline to answer charges that it was reneging on a promise to spend €90,000 (£60,000) on a protected environmental park at Laganas Bay. “An answer was supposedly given,” Vasilis Kouroutos, the league’s secretary said, “but we never saw a draft. Even now we don’t know what’s in it. The Government gives us a thousand excuses and nothing else.”

MARINE MIGRANTS

• Zakynthos is one of the last and most important nesting areas in the Mediterranean for the loggerhead turtle
• In summer up to 900 turtles lay eggs on the southern beaches of Laganas, Gerakas, Sekania, Dafni, Kalamaki and Marathonisi
• The male turtle never leaves the sea
• Females return to the same beach 30 years later. Only one in a thousand will reach the reproductive age of 30
• Loggerheads are highly migratory and make some of the longest journeys of all marine turtle species

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