This is an official program of the “United Nations Decade of the Oceans” and aims to contribute to the protection of corals in deep waters through specialised research. Following similar research from previous years in many of the world’s oceans, e.g. in the Arctic, Canary Islands and the Caribbean, the focus for the next 5 months will be on important areas of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Scientists from Under The Pole have already started diving to depths of over 100 metres in the area of the Fourni island complex. The goal is to carry out sampling and specialised measurements on specific reefs in the area that have already been mapped by the Archipelagos Institute, and to highlight these ecosystems of international importance that are in immediate need of protection. 

The expertise of Under The Pole’s scientists, and the laboratory analyses that will follow in the coming months, will strengthen the research of Archipelagos Institute, and of its international scientific partners, that they have been conducting since 2021, which focuses on vulnerable ecosystems in the deep waters of the Aegean Sea. It is important to be aware that the coral habitats in the deep waters of the Aegean are in immediate need of protection, and are essentially at risk of irreversible destruction by humans before we can discover their existence.