Sea Shepherd Global is excited to announce the renewal of our Memorandum of Understanding with Greece’s Natural Environment & Climate Change Agency (N.E.C.C.A.) to continue our patrols of the National Marine Park of Alonissos Northern Sporades. During his visit to Greece last week to speak about our direct action campaigns protecting marine wildlife at the Our Ocean 2024 Conference, Sea Shepherd Global CEO Alex Cornelissen co-signed the renewal with N.E.C.C.A. President Maria Papadopoulou, confirming two more years of successful collaboration.

This renewal coincides with a major advancement in marine conservation in Greece, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced at the conference in Athens that Greece will prohibit bottom trawling in its national parks by 2026 and extend this ban to all marine protected areas by 2030. “We’ve established two additional marine national parks, one in the Ionian and one in the Aegean, increasing the size of our marine protected areas by 80% and covering one third of our marine territorial waters.”

The proposed marine national parks will provide additional protections for sea mammals like sperm whales, striped dolphins, and the vulnerable Mediterranean monk seal at the heart of Sea Shepherd’s Monachus Defense Campaign in Greece.

Since 2022, Sea Shepherd Greece has been cooperating with the Ministry of Environment, the N.E.C.C.A, the Management Unit of the National Park of Alonissos, the Coast Guard, and other local organizations in coordinated efforts to protect Monk seals in Greece. Under the renewed partnership, our vessel M/Y Emanuel Bronner will continue patrolling the marine park, focusing on monitoring and preventing illegal fishing activities, especially during the critical summer months.

"We are happy that we are continuing our important work in the largest Marine Protected Area in the Mediterranean. The protection of Alonissos Marine Park is elemental for the conservation of the Mediterranean Monk Seal, as well as all other creatures in the marine reserve."- Valias Stefanoudaki, Director of Sea Shepherd Greece.

This collaboration underscores Sea Shepherd's ongoing commitment to marine conservation in Greece, supported solely by private funding, and highlights the effectiveness of cooperative efforts between conservation organizations and governmental bodies in marine biodiversity protection.

Learn more about the Monachus Defense Campaign