On summer nights on the quiet beaches of western Cyprus, female sea turtles haul themselves out of the water, dig a nest in the sand and lay about a hundred eggs before slipping back into the sea. Two species nest on the island: the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), both priority species under EU nature law. Lara Bay on the Akamas coast is one of the most important breeding sites in Cyprus and the Mediterranean for both, and the effort to protect it is one of the island's real conservation stories.
Most of the nesting happens on the west coast of the Akamas, at Lara and Toxeftra, and in Chrysochou Bay around Polis. Females lay from May to mid-August, usually three or four clutches a season and only every two or three years, and the hatchlings dig their way out about seven weeks later, between July and early October. The odds are long: the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research says only one or two hatchlings in a thousand survive to return, 15 to 30 years later, to the beach where they were born.
Cyprus started early. Sea turtles and their eggs have been protected since 1971 by regulations under the Fisheries Law, and after a survey of the nesting beaches in 1976 and 1977 the Fisheries Department launched the Cyprus Turtle Conservation Project in 1978, with a seasonal station and hatchery at Lara. In 1989 the Lara-Toxeftra coast was declared a protected area under the same law, the island's first marine protected area. It is part of the EU's Natura 2000 network and has been listed since 2013 as a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance.
The work on the beach is hands-on. Nests are left where the mother laid them whenever possible and protected with cages, because foxes cause most of the natural losses: a survey of the beaches east of Polis, reported by the department in 1989, found that foxes had dug up more than 70 per cent of the nests. Today the programme is run for the department by MedTRACS, the Mediterranean Turtle Research and Conservation Society, set up in 2022, whose team patrols the nesting beaches every day in the areas under the Republic's control, protects the nests, follows the hatching and records stranded turtles. The Cyprus Wildlife Society, founded in 1984 by Andreas Demetropoulos, the Fisheries Department director who started the project, and Myroula Hadjichristophorou, has long campaigned for protected areas, the Akamas among them.
How visitors can help
At Lara and Toxeftra the rules are strict. From 1 June to 30 September umbrellas, sunbeds, tents, caravans and huts are banned on the beach, and nobody may stay on it at night, from an hour before sunset. All year round it is forbidden to drive onto the beach, light fires, pollute or collect the protected tufted ghost crabs, and from 1 May to 31 October boats may not sail or anchor in the protected area out to a depth of 20 metres, apart from licensed small-scale fishing boats. The rules are enforced: in August 2026 fisheries officers went back to Lara to remind bathers who had put up umbrellas and tents of the restrictions.
On any nesting beach the same courtesy applies: keep away at night and keep lights off. According to the department, females come ashore on quiet, unlit beaches, and when people disturb them they often abandon the attempt and lay their eggs in the sea, where they are lost. You can also follow two of Lara's turtles from home. In June 2026 MedTRACS fitted satellite transmitters to a green turtle and a loggerhead nesting in Lara Bay, the first nesting females there to be tracked, and their journeys appear on the MedTRACS tracking maps. One is called Andrea, after Andreas Demetropoulos, and the other Lara, after the beach.
Nest numbers have climbed, with more than 2,300 nests of the two species recorded in 2023, but the turtle teams are cautious: development, erosion, light pollution and crowded beaches remain the main threats. If you are thinking of making Cyprus your home and want to live near beaches like these, our relocation help can guide you through the process.
