The action on board the Aegean Explorer continues with the main objective of identifying and mapping protected ecosystems, such as the Poseidonia seagrass meadows and coral habitats, but also the correction of official mapping – where it exists – or the creation of detailed maps from scratch. It should go without saying that it is not possible to protect or manage protected ecosystems in any way when their existence or location is not even known.

This research is very difficult, it requires specialised equipment and expertise and is very costly, but also very difficult to carry out in the open sea, especially now in the middle of winter. It is, however, the only way in which we can finally contribute to a protection result, and not spend time chattering about the problem.

The responsibility for the current situation and the lack of protection of protected species, ecosystems or areas in the Greek seas lies not only with the state authorities, but also with a large part of the scientific and academic community involved in the field of marine research and education.  Although they spend valuable time (resulting in decades of lost time) and large public funds, the results are far from protection, as they end up in scientific publications or project reports that ultimately have no use or practical application for marine protection, which is as much needed nowadays as ever.