The effective protection of the coralligenous habitats of the Aegean

October 28th 2024 The effective protection of the coralligenous habitats of the Aegean is one of the most challenging goals of this winter for all of us at the Archipelagos Institute. These highly productive and uniquely beautiful ecosystems were, until recently, almost unknown in our seas, and are also the most endangered. Taking advantage of […]

Octopus: Threatened by overexploitation

October 3rd 2024 Octopus: Threatened by overexploitation The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is one of the most fished cephalopod species in the world. In recent years their exploitation is on the rise. Unsustainable fishing practices occur during important spawning seasons and target undersized octopus. Due to continued overfishing, recovery of their populations is very slow. […]

The devastating effects of uncontrolled trawling – a fishing practice that has contributed greatly to overfishing and the emptying of seas across the Mediterranean.

September 4th 2024 In the Aegean Sea with a film crew of French Television, we explain and document in real time the problems of the fisheries sector. Our focus is the devastating effects of uncontrolled trawling – a fishing practice that has contributed greatly to overfishing and the emptying of seas across the Mediterranean. Greece, […]

Information meeting with fishermen, the municipality and the local community of Fourni island. Topic: the progress of the research aimed to promote the urgent protection of the coralligenous habitats in the deep waters of the area.

The collaboration between the French UNDER THE POLE and the Archipelagos Institute revealed for the first time high resolution imagery of the coralligenous ecosystems of international environmental importance that still survive in the deep waters of the Fourni island complex. This research required over 120 difficult dives by eight deep-sea divers from Under the Pole […]

Collaborations at Fourni: Archipelagos Marine Institute of Conservation, Pure Ocean Fund, Hellenic Rescue Team of Samos, and UNDER THE POLE, along with close cooperation of the Municipality of Fournis and the Local fishermen of the island

The common goal of all remains the urgent and effective protection of this area of unique biodiversity and global environmental importance, which supports significant populations of rare marine species and is characterised by unique geomorphological features, as well as adverse weather conditions that make research in deep depths particularly difficult. Rare species and ecosystems are […]

World Oceans Day

Today is World Ocean Day, a good reason to remember that we have only explored 5% of our world’s ocean. This means that 95% of our ocean is still unknown. Therefore we risk causing the extinction of many thousands of species before we even discover that they exist. Each one of us has not only […]

The Unknown Corals of the Aegean

Joint Action UNDER THE POLE ( https://underthepole.org ) & “Archipelagos” Institute Aiming for Urgent Protection The action in the deep waters of the island complex of Fourni reveals a unique underwater world. But much of it will never be discovered because we have already destroyed it. Corals and coral ecosystems that formed within thousands of years […]

Our crews have been coordinating at the port of Fourni

The collaboration between the French organisation UNDER THE POLE, which specialises in scientific diving at depths of more than 100 metres, and the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, aims to find an effective protection for the corals in the deep waters of the Aegean Sea.  These ecosystems of fundamental importance and unique beauty were, until […]

Actions for the DEEPLIFE program of the French organisation UNDER THE POLE in cooperation with Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation started today, focusing on the island of Fourni.

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 […]