Press Release: “Hope Spot”, Vatika Bay

PRESS RELEASE.                                                                                           February 1, 2017

Contacts:  Barbara Euser.   bjeuser@yahoo.com

                  Sophia Schultz.  sschultz@www.cherylbenard.com

Hope Spots Council Holds Special Meeting to Discuss Pavlopetri

The prestigious marine conservation organization Mission Blue will review the nomination of Vatika Bay and the proposed Natura 2000 Marine Area for the coveted designation of Hope Spot. The Hope Spots Council will convene a special meeting – before its annual meeting in April 2017 – for the sole purpose of discussing Pavlopetri. Adding the specific area the Greek Chapter of ARCH (Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage) nominated in its request to Mission Blue’s Hope Spots program in January 2017, would give Pavlopetri a critical boost. 

Mission Blue was created to realize Dr. Sylvia Earle’s wish to ignite support for a global network of Marine Protected Areas — Hope Spots! — large enough to protect and restore the ocean, Earth’s blue heart. Currently less than 4% of the ocean has any sort of protection. Mission Blue is dedicated to achieving 20% protection by 2020. Visit mission-blue.org.

According to Mission Blue staff, “Networks of marine protected areas maintain healthy biodiversity, provide a carbon sink, generate life-giving oxygen, preserve critical habitat and allow low-impact activities like ecotourism to thrive. They are good for the ocean, which means they are good for us. We are often asked, “How much protection is enough?” We can only answer with another question: How much of your heart is worth protecting?”

In order to qualify as a Hope Spot, the marine area must show that it has a variety of marine species that require protection and a basic marine ecosystem that supports them. Vatika Bay and the proposed Natura 2000 Marine Area have all of these:

Vatika Bay has extensive meadows of the sea grass Posidonia oceanica. Posidonia is called “the lungs of the ocean” because it uses carbon dioxide to generate oxygen, upon which all marine creatures depend in order to survive. Posidonia beds also protect the young of many species of fish. The EU-protected species Pinna nobilis (fan clams) lives along the edges of the Posidonia meadows. Unfortunately, the Posidonia meadows have been severely damaged by the anchors of the large commercial ships that are allowed to anchor in Vatika Bay. 

Vatika Bay is home to species of marine fauna so revered in the world they are called “iconic species.” Monachus monachus, monk seals, which live in the Bay and breed near Kythira Island, are iconic species. So are Caretta caretta, loggerhead turtles, that lay their eggs all along the beaches of Vatika Bay. In just one season of record-keeping, volunteers with Toulipa Goulymi identified over one hundred turtle nests. Dolphins and whales also make Vatika Bay their home. Their presence is so significant that in July 2016, Dr. Alexandros Frantzis of the Pelagos Institute nominated an area of 2,612 square kilometers of marine area, including Vatika Bay, as a Natura 2000 Marine Area.

If Vatika Bay and the extended area proposed as a Natura 2000 Marine Area were to be selected as a Hope Spot, it would provide international recognition of the value of this unique — and extremely valuable — marine ecosystem. It would assist the efforts of all the groups, local, national, and international, that are trying to protect it. By drawing international attention to the damage being inflicted upon Vatika Bay, it may alert Greek authorities that Vatika Bay should be legally protected as a Natura 2000 Marine Area, as a Marine Protected Area in the Mediterranean network, or as a National Marine Park. 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, founder of Mission Blue and the Hope Spots program, says it best, “We must protect the ocean as if our lives depend upon it — because they do.”