The flamingo photo competition has been a success and may well be repeated in future, while there is a need to ensure the migratory birds are not disturbed, Chairman of the Larnaca tourism board Dinos Lefkaritis said on Friday at an award ceremony for the winners of the contest.

A total of 165 photographs starring the 10,000 flamingos that have visited the Larnaca salt lake this winter participated in the competition. As organisers, the Larnaca tourism board, made it available for online voting to the public this month.

The winning photo by Philippos Pattichis secured 1745 votes. Pattichis received €500 which he donated to the Larnaca community food bank.

Argyris Karagiorgis won the second prize with 1363 votes. He offered his winnings of €200 to the St. Spyridon school for special needs.

The third prize got 863 votes. Neophytos Christodoulides received the sum of €100 for his picture.

Three photographers, Maria Koursaris, Andreas Pampoukas and Dimitra Nikolaou got an honourable mention. Due to the large number of impressive pictures that were submitted, another honourable mention was extended to Bryan Pearson.

“The aim of this exercise was to highlight the natural wetlands of Larnaca, namely the Alyki Lake. We believe that we have achieved our objective because the photography competition has impelled many people to be interested in the flamingos and visit our wetlands,” he said.

“30 great contest photos are displayed in the Amorgos hotel conference room in Larnaca from February 26 to 29. These prints will later be given to Larnaca hotels where they will be permanently displayed,” he added.

“Many of our fellow citizens,” Lefkaritis added, “in their attempt to take close-ups of birds, may disturb the flamingos. This issue has highlighted three problems, the lack of information and public awareness about the problems that this can cause the migratory birds, the lack of proper monitoring of the wetlands and the lack of legislation on certain issues relating to the protection of birds.”

As an example, he stated the use of drones which should be prohibited in wetlands as they are in airports and ports. “The Larnaca tourism board is preparing to submit certain recommendations to the competent bodies in order to solve this problem,” the chairman concluded.

Lefkaritis said that curious onlookers, on most weekends, staff from BirdLife Cyprus are at the Larnaca salt lake bird watching with telescopes.

In addition, the observatory at Voroklini lake will be staffed with the right equipment every Monday between 10.15am and 11.30am until April, an offer by the Voroklini Community Council and the Larnaca tourism board.

Asked whether the photo competition on the flamingos will now become an annual event, Lefkaritis replied “after the excellent results we have from the first attempt, we are encouraged to establish such an institution.”