Today is World Whale Day and we share with you a special snapshot from the Aegean Sea: a mother sperm whale nursing its young in the channel between Mykonos and Ikaria islands. In the photo you can see some milk on the surface of the sea. An image that is unseen in our everyday life, but has been repeated for thousands of years in this special sea.

It is truly remarkable how little we know today about the sperm whales, the giants of our seas. Their presence has been mentioned in the Greek seas since antiquity, with Aristotle’s impressive records for the time. As a species it has managed to survive for millions of years, while today it seems to be defending itself against human influence, living in the seas we overfish, fill with plastic waste and hazardous sewage and degrade in so many other ways.

At a time when we have so much over-information – much of which is ultimately unnecessary – we have no right to go about with so much ignorance and such large gaps in our knowledge of the unique species living around us. If we do not get to know our seas and their unique richness, it is impossible to manage or protect them!