The crew of Triton continues its route in the northern Dodecanese, to Arki, Marathi, and the Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary in Lipsi.

During our stop in Marathi, a small island of the Arki complex, we focused on maintenance work at the Archipelagos research station that has been operating since 2002. As this research station is exposed to harsh weather conditions, regular maintenance work is essential in order to meet the needs of our research teams, especially during the difficult winter months.

On Marathi, an island that in the 1960s had 65 residents, many of them children, only two permanent inhabitants remain today. This is a devastating trajectory – one tragically shared by all the small islands of the Aegean. They are being prepared to function only as summer resorts and not supporting viable communities, as they have been for thousands of years. A destructive prospect that, unfortunately, some economists, short-sighted politicians, and others, still insist on calling a form of “development.”

Marathi lies at the heart of the “Permanent Wildlife Refuge of the Arki Complex & Northern Patmos Islets,” which includes 14 important islands and islets. The Wildlife Refuge was established in 2004, following research and initiatives from the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, in close cooperation with the local communities of the two inhabited islands (Arki and Marathi), as well as with the Municipality of Patmos and the South Aegean District authorities