Ecosystem at Limnos
The area surrounding Keros beach forms a quite unique landscape, featuring rare sand dunes, wetlands, natural salt lakes, and astonishing flora and fauna.
You can take a walk and observe very rare flowers, rabbits, flamingos and other birds, all of which are protected under the Natura 2000 program.
Please be discrete when observing, make sure to take photos, and please, leave behind only your footsteps.
Surf Club Keros and the Ecosystem
Our goal as SurfClub Keros is to
protect this natural treasure.
To start with, our whole beach setup is mobile, and we move it at the end of the season, which is costly and requires lots of work, but ensures that the natural enviromnet remains untouched and unexploited.
Secondly, we cover our needs 100% by solar power, which is one of the cleanest energy forms.
Our beach WC facility is a state of art self-composting system, where thousands of litres of water are saved every year, no chemicals are used, and at the same time the comfort and hygene of a normal toilet are maintained.
We organize beach clean-ups very often, picking all the plastic and garbage that gets blown onto the beach from the sea.
We prevent cars from being driven on the beach.
We use a tiny path for people to walk over the sand dunes rather than making a big road and a parking lot (we had this option).
More Info about the ecosystem
In recent years, scientists of the environmental organization WWF HELLAS (Worldwide Fund for Nature) were surprised registering in Lemnos not only the largest in extent wetlands of Mediterranean, but also the best-preserved.
The most important wetlands of the island
The most important wetlands on the island are actually very close to Surf Club Keros! Make sure you take some time and visit these natural wonders.
These wetlands are the cluster of lakes of Alyki, Chortarolimni and Asprolimni, which
cover an area of 14,000,000m2 approximately and is incorporated in the
network NATURA 2000. The area of these three lakes constitutes an ideal
environment for a great number of plants and animal, many times
indigenous and rare. Nowadays, it seems to be hard to find such a good
combination of salt meadows and sand dunes, without the devastation
caused by human activity. Too many migratory birds come in the area for
wintering, while there have been recorded till 4,000.
Alyki
This lake lies in the area of the village Kontopouli, its expanse
surpasses 6,300,000m2, is salty and communicates with sea through a
small canal. In winter, it is filled with sea water, which is evaporated
in summer, leaving behind a salt of excellent quality.
Chortarolimni
It is a brackish lake of 2,300,000m2, which belongs to the
administrative district area of the village Kalliopi. It is completely
dry in summer, but the rest of the seasons it looks like a blue painting
in green background, with hundreds singings of Herons, Ruddy Shelducks,
Black-winged Stilts and Pied Avocets, which give their own fight for
survival.
Asprolimni
It lies between Alyki and Chortarolimni, is characterized by high salt
content, has an expanse of 500,000m2 and is dry in summer.
Biologists support that stagnant plains and mainly the basins “tigania”
and “thermastres” of salt-marshes, where sea water is “baked” and
prepared for salt coagulation, constitute particular areas, while
various animal and plant organisms are developed there.
So, the two lakes of the island are overrun by Wild geese, Garganeys,
Whooper swans, Herons, Halcyons, Glossy Ibis, Pelicans, Gulls, Terns,
Grebes, Moorhens and dense swarms of Pink Flamingos.
Endangered Species
Phoenicopterus: the Pink Flamingo
It is an exotic pink coloring wading bird, which use its peculiar beak
as a strainer and feeds its young ones with a liquid like milk. Listen
to their flight and admire their great pink plumage, high legs, height,
longneck and particular shape of their head. Those are considered to be
the most beautiful and imposing “visitors” of Lemnos, in hospitable
wetlands of which they’re looking for a shelter every year.
Ruddy Shelduck
It is a duck which resembles to a goose. It comes from Asia and constitutes a species threatened by extinction.
Lesser Kestrel
It is a kestrel that isn’t afraid of people and is in danger of paying
this forfeit of its disappearance. It comes in Lemnos in spring and at
the end of August flies southerly to Sahara for wintering.
For more information about the ecosystem you can visit the official municipal website:
