Celebrating our Oceans
World Maritime Day 2025
The theme of World Maritime Day this year is ‘Our Ocean, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity’.[1] Today we celebrate all things ocean, and speak up for marine life. 🌊🐡🦈🪸
During this year’s event I happen to be on the island of Crete - surrounded by the Mediterranean and South Cretan Seas. As an archaeologist I researched that despite the significant underwater archaeological resources in Greece, as of the date of this posting they have not yet signed on to the 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. [2]
However, the Government of Greece has announced it is expecting to achieve its 30 by 30 target for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Life Below Water with the expansion of its Marine Protected Areas.[3] This is an obligation.
Notably, there is some discrepancy in actual protective status according to nine environmental organisations who published a study, “Marine Protected Areas Management in Greece: Assessment Report” in October, 2024.[4] This report provides the government with an opportunity.
Greece and its numerous islands form the largest coastline of any country in the Mediterranean. It has a total length of 13, 676 km.[5] Crete is the largest Greek island and has a coastline of 1,046 km.[6]
[1] https://www.imo.org/en/mediacentre/pressbriefings/pages/2025-world-maritime-day-theme.aspx
[2] https://www.unesco.org/en/underwater-heritage?hub=66813 ; list of member states
[3] https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/enlargement-marine-protected-areas-network-greece-meet-30-target
[4] The study is published in Greek, but there is an English language article and link to an Executive Summary in English here: https://archelon.gr/en/news/greece-s-marine-protected-areas-remain-unprotected
[5] Geography of Greece - Wikipedia - accessed August 22, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Greece. Notably, Canada has the longest coastline in the world at 243,042 km - Statistics Canada - accessed August 22, 2025.
[6] Crete - Wikipedia - accessed August 22, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete
