Snap's Last Season

Snap, the little Nile crocodile who has been cared for at Aquaworld for the last five years, is off to pastures new at the end of this summer.

Snap had been up for sale in the pet trade and that was why he was "rescued" and homed at Aquaworld - Nile crocodiles are simply not pets and should never be sold to unqualified folk without the right conditions to keep an animal which can grow to as much as 6 meters and kill people!

We ourselves lack the space to keep such a large creature comfortably, so we started looking for a permanent home for Snap last year. Unfortunately, things had kind of stalled until the arrival of animal welfare officer David Barnes at Aquaworld last month. He checked out the well-being of our animals and was very complimentary about their condition(s). We then turned to the problem of a home for Snap, and David really did set the wheels in motion.

He soon had an offer of a place for our little croc in a new, state-of-the-art facility in Spain and put us in touch with the relevant CITES authorities to ensure that all the paper-work was in order. Only one problem remained, that of the actual time Snap would have to be crated up in order to reach Spain by normal commercial flights. As David set to work on trying to find someone who might somehow enable a direct flight from Crete to Spain, an easier and equally effective alternative opened up.

Mr Lesueur, the director of the new Attica Zoological Park just outside Athens has today confirmed that Snap will be given just what he needs there - a great environment with caring people. Athens is only forty-five minutes flying time from Crete, so we estimate that Snap will only have to put up with being in a box for two-and-a-half hours or so and, much to our delight, we will be able to accompany him personally to his new home.

On behalf of Snap, our sincere thanks go to David Barnes, Dimitris Vernicos and Mr Lesueur of Attica Zoo, as well as to Enrique Prieto of the Cocodrilo Park in Torremolinos who originally offered him a home.

And, of course, our sincere thanks to all of you for your interest :-)

18th April, 2007

A familiar face suddenly appeared at the door today, that of Libby Weir-Breen, the founder of Island Holidays Plus.

Libby and her fellow guide Richard White had brought (dragged in :) ) four of their clients who had grave reservations about visiting an establishment which kept live animals and charged people for seeing them.

I was given just twenty minutes to change that attitude, if I could!

What followed was a delightful conversation and tour around Aquaworld. This eventually far exceeded the specified time and resulted in a fruitful exchange of both information and ideas, something we always try to achieve.

Our sincere thanks for your generosity to the four lady visitors, Libby, Richard and all at Island Holidays - we hope to see you again soon!

22nd April, 2007

This is hardly the way to write a blog, but my only excuse is the wonderful fact that Aquaworld has had a start to the season like no other! Finding time to update the blog has just been impossible - but I'll try to make it up now by adding new postings with a date at the top which corresponds to (roughly) when the events described actually happened...

Dimitris Revisits Aquaworld – With a Few Friends!

Dimitris enjoying his return visit

Dimitris Cartas first met the inhabitants of Aquaworld Aquarium in August last year, and when he paid a return visit this month it was with thirty-five of his environmental studies class-mates and four of their teachers for company.

The Cartas family was on holiday in Crete last summer and searched out Aquaworld after having read about it on the aquarium website. Mr Cartas senior was so impressed that he wrote in the Visitors’ Book that:

“This is a very well done job. I really enjoyed the facility. The philosophy of this aquarium and reptile base is really pet oriented where I got the opportunity to be very close to reptiles that most of the time we consider unfriendly and dangerous. I was very pleased. I recommend this visit to families with young kids.”

When Dimitris’ school (the 2nd Senior High of Haidariou) decided to visit Crete for their annual excursion, he remembered the little aquarium in Hersonissos and advised his class and teachers to visit it as part of their itinerary. When they agreed, Dimitris took it on himself to make all the arrangements with John & Judith McLaren - curators of Aquaworld.

As part of the proceedings, Dimitris had asked John to give them all a talk on environmental issues – but all notions of formality quickly evaporated when the party met some of the ‘kids’ of Aquaworld. There was a happy, excited and totally uncontrollable buzz as the young students found themselves holding snakes and lizards – very often for the first time in their lives – and delighting in very ‘up close and personal’ experiences.

“Although a lecture proved impossible,” remarked John, “we did have a prolonged and very fruitful Q&A session on an individual basis. The discussion ranged from such things as the reputation of reptiles versus the hard facts, animal conservation and protection of the environment. I found it very satisfying to talk with such an enthusiastic group of youngsters and I feel this bodes well for the future of environmental studies in Greece.”

On leaving, Dimitris added his thoughts to his father’s in the Visitors’ Book:
“This is a very great learning experience and it changes your point of view towards the environment.”

Some of Dimitris' classmates get up close & personal with a rescued boa

The First Week of the Campaign

Well, the campaign to improve the lot of the loggerhead turtles on Zakynthos is well underway.

Yesterday I finished a new blog-type page to add to Aquaworld's main site and I've just this moment finished linking all the other pages of the site to it. you can read it at:

http://www.aquaworld-crete.com/zakynthos-turtles.html

I welcome all comments/criticism - anything that can help relieve this dreadful shame on the Greek nation.

I have also just emailed Medasset, Archelon, WWF Greece and Greenpeace with details of the petition. Hopefully, we will find some support there. If you can think of anyone who can contribute - even just a single signature - please let them know. Remember, the link to the petition is:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/zakynthos-turtles/index.html

To those of you who have already signed, thank you so much for forming what I hope is the kernel of something much greater. Again, let me appeal to you all - the key to this petition having any effect is if the good citizens of Zakynthos really believe that their pockets will become much lighter as a result of it. In turn, that means lots of signatures, so please pass on word of our enterprise and together I'm sure we can make it work.

Thanks,

John

Caretta caretta - A National Shame!

It was something of a puzzle to read recently on the Internet that I was caring for a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) at Aquaworld! It wasn't until another publication - the Ko-go Khronicles - did its research properly and reported correctly that the turtle was being cared for at the nearby CretAquarium that the mystery was solved. Some journalists just can't seem to get it right....

However, while one turtle may be getting all the tender loving care it needs to make sure it can be released soon, others are not faring so well here in Greece!

All the facts of the Greek national shame taking place daily at Zakynthos, the most critical and vital nesting place for the loggerhead in the entire Mediterranean, can be read on the detailed Medasset report and photographs of the disgraceful ongoing habitat destruction can also be viewed online.

There is no need to reiterate all the facts here. It is sufficient to say that greed and self interest - the overwhelming desire for the tourist euro, dollar, pound or whatever - is not simply threatening this ancient species, the very sand in which the turtles lay their eggs is even being removed for building purposes!!!

I feel that it is high time that those responsible are sent a very strong message - we will not put up with this disgrace any longer.

It is with this in mind that I have created an online petition which I would like everyone who cares for the future of the loggerhead turtle to sign - you can choose to remain anonymous if you so desire. The key message to the people of Zakynthos is simple - put things right or suffer the financial consequences of an ongoing, snowballing tourist boycott of the entire area. When you've signed it, please forward it to all the caring individuals you know.

There is only a fairly basic petition online at present, but a website is under construction and this blog will let you know when its available - keep on reading :-)