For nearly two months, two low-emission sailing boats have crisscrossed the Aegean and Ionian seas to raise awareness about one of the world\u2019s most endangered marine mammals: the Mediterranean monk seal.<\/p>\n
The \u201cSeal Greece\u201d campaign, organized by the Monk Seal Alliance and Greece\u2019s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency, has visited 26 islands and 29 ports, covering roughly 1,000 nautical miles, Euronews reported on Monday.<\/p>\n
Marine biologist Suzanne Raqbi said she uses an augmented reality display to engage locals and tourists. \u201cA beautiful seal gives them playful advice on how to act if they encounter Mediterranean seals,\u201d she told Euronews.<\/p>\n
The team, including Captain Loukas Gurchogiannis, also speaks with business owners on islands that depend heavily on tourism. Many residents, they said, were unaware human activity can disturb and even threaten the seals. \u201cI think this serves as a wake-up call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Disturbances often come from recreational and tourist boats that enter seal habitats, including caves, where loud music, shouting and photo-taking disrupt the animals. Party boats pose an even greater risk, campaigners said.<\/p>\n
Professional skipper Elias Theodoropoulos told Euronews many travelers show interest in conservation. \u201cTourism can be combined with environmental protection. It needs moderation and balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fewer than 1,000 monk seals remain in the wild, nearly half in Greek waters. Campaign organizers hope education, especially among young people, can help protect the species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly two months, two low-emission sailing boats have crisscrossed the Aegean and Ionian seas to raise awareness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[13775,49,48,295,16230,44,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-112766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-protection","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-initiative","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}