1of6
Our primary objective is the study and protection of the marine world and the raising of awareness on environmental issues. In order to support our goal, we have formed a series of ecotourism projects involving sailing, diving and/or exploring unique species. When our sailing boat, is not chartered, we sail around cleaning beaches, recycling or helping researchers and organisations to collect data in order to study and protect the environment and wildlife.
Our base has become the island of Syros where most of the maintenance work is carried out by local people using materials purchased locally.
We encourage guests to visit and try the local cuisine and purchase local goods wherever we go in order to get a taste of the local culture and also support the local community. Under the guidance of our experienced biologist, people are introduced to tens of endemic species, both from the animal and plant kingdoms which exist only in this small corner of the globe. Guests will leave with a different approach towards wildlife and aware of the dangers they face and how to minimise them. We organise visits at the two national marine parks in Greece, in Zakynthos and Alonisos, where the two most important organisations for the protection of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta and the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus are based. Our guests are briefed on their work and how they can support them.
During our whale and dolphin spotting, the voices of mammals will be recorded with the aid of our hydrophone and notes will be made on their characteristics in order to help scientists with their collection of data. Our guests are welcome to participate.
We organise marine ecology seminars for divers and present a brief version of this to every diver that joins us. This involves a briefing on how to monitor the level of anthropogenic impact on a marine site and warn our scientist of any deterioration they observe.
We try to minimise the impact of our boat on the marine environment by using the motor as little as possible, mainly just to enter and leave the port. When mooring we avoid throwing the anchor on meadows of sea grass. We always use permanent moorings when provided. We’ve allowed space in the sailing boat to store waste plastics especially bottles. As there is no drinking water available in the Greek islands, there is a huge consumption of bottled water. We store all the plastic in the capital of Syros, Ermoupolis and we take it back to Athens at the end of the season for recycling.
You can trust responsibletravel.com reviews because, unlike many other schemes, reviews can ONLY be written by people who we have verified have been on the holidays. In addition, we don't run these holidays ourselves - our only interest is giving you the best independent advice.
