The Greek government has announced the creation of two National Marine Parks, covering almost 27,500 km² of sea and land in the Ionian Sea and the southern Cyclades, a move intended to accelerate the country’s goal of protecting 30 percent of its territorial waters by 2030. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis framed the decision as “a bold new model for marine conservation”. They said the protected zones will ban bottom-trawling, restore fragile habitats, and showcase Greece as “a voice for the sea in Europe and beyond.”
“Turkey can believe in grey zones all it wants, but we reject the concept outright. We see no grey areas in the Aegean, so our policy will not change,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters, stressing that the initiative is based purely on environmental criteria.
Where The Parks Lie
• Southern Cyclades Marine Park (9 477 km²): stretching from Antimilos and Milos eastward to Amorgos and including the tiny islets of Kinaros and Levitha, the zone encloses 73 island clusters, 68 of which already fall under the EU Natura 2000 network.
• Ionian Sea Marine Park (17,970 km²): linking existing protected areas from Lefkada to Antikythira and embracing Kefalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos, and a long strip of the western Peloponnese coast.
Both parks will be subject to public consultation until 22 September. They will be managed by the state-run Natural Environment and Climate Change Organisation (OFYPEKA) in partnership with the coast guard, scientists, and local fishers. Thirty-four scientists are to be hired through Greece’s civil-service board (ASEP), and more than €20 million will be earmarked for enforcement and monitoring.
Diplomatic Ripples in the Aegean
Ankara reacted within hours, calling the declaration a “unilateral act without legal effect” and repeating its long-standing claim that several Aegean islands and islets have an undefined sovereignty status. The Turkish Foreign Ministry warned that “exploiting global values such as environmental protection” cannot alter the “interconnected problems” of the Aegean. It hinted it may announce its marine reserves.
Greek diplomats counter that Athens, for the first time, is taking the initiative instead of merely responding to Turkish moves. The inclusion of Kinaros and Levitha— two Dodecanese islets frequently overflown by Turkish jets — is seen in Athens as a deliberate assertion of sovereignty rather than a provocation.
Environmental First, Sovereignty Always
Officials insist the scheme’s primary purpose is ecological: trawling will be prohibited, while small-scale coastal fishing, beekeeping, and grazing may continue under stricter rules. Environment Minister Stavros Papastavrou called the decision “phase one” of a wider blueprint that will roll out more parks across the Aegean, arguing that large-scale, contiguous reserves provide “a holistic ecological, administrative and socio-economic approach” impossible to achieve through scattered Natura sites alone.
Scientists note that the Mediterranean is among the most overfished seas on Earth; large no-take zones can help restore depleted stocks and boost eco-tourism revenue for island communities. Mitsotakis echoed that view, describing the parks as future “living laboratories” run “with local communities, fishers and international partners.”
What Happens Next?
Draft management plans will be uploaded online in August, while OFYPEKA teams map vulnerable habitats to define core no-go areas. The government hopes to pass enabling legislation by early 2026, beating the EU’s 2030 biodiversity deadline by four years.
For now, Athens appears determined to keep ecology and geopolitics on separate tracks, betting that robust conservation can coexist with a firm refusal to revisit settled borders—a message it believes its new Marine Parks underscore in both word and water.
Photo: Created with the help of the Gemini AI technology.