Safeguarding the Hidden Reefs of Fourni: A Call to Protect the Mediterranean’s Underwater Treasures
May 12th 2025 Safeguarding the Hidden Reefs of Fourni: A Call to Protect the Mediterranean’s Underwater Treasures The research vessel Triton and its crew are currently operating in the waters of the Fourni Archipelago—a truly unique region of the Mediterranean made up of over 20 islands and islets, known for their remarkable underwater geomorphology. Beneath […]
Strong Southern Winds in the Aegean, but Life Beneath the Surface Carries On
March 13th 2025 Strong Southern Winds in the Aegean, but Life Beneath the Surface Carries On Despite today’s intense southern winds sweeping across the Aegean, life in the deeper waters continues undisturbed. In the marine region around Fournoi, a close collaboration between the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, its scientific partners, local fishers, and the […]
Triton Anchors Briefly in Wintery Ikaria Before Returning to the Depths
March 10th 2025 Triton Anchors Briefly in Wintery Ikaria Before Returning to the Depths “Triton” made a short stop earlier today in the village of Armenistis in wintery northern Ikaria. A few hours before the strong south winds start, we make the most of the temporary calm to continue our research in this special sea […]
Curious Dolphins, Fragile Depths: A Call to Protect the Aegean
January 4th 2025 Curious Dolphins, Fragile Depths: A Call to Protect the Aegean An unexpected encounter occurred between humans and dolphins in the waters of the Fourni Island archipelago. After the deep divers from UNDER THE POLE completed a dive to survey coralligenous habitats at a depth of 100 meters, their slow ascent, lasting over […]
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 […]
