Marine conservation

Greece is falling short of its goals to protect marine environments, with only 3.4% of its territorial waters under some form of protection, according to a report from nine environmental organizations, including WWF Hellas and Greenpeace.

Greenpeace has called on the Greek government to honor the commitments it made in April, at the Our Ocean Conference, noting that Athens has not ratified the UN Oceans Treaty nor established new marine protected areas.

Only 0.1% of Greek territorial waters are currently adequately protected from overfishing and other environmentally damaging activities, according to a report by the international organization Pristine Seas, delivered last month to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Greece aims to create two large marine parks as part of a 780-million-euro ($830 million) program to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, with the plans to be announced at an international oceans conference starting in Athens on Tuesday.

More than 40 new commitments will be made this week by the European Union in Athens at the international Our Oceans Conference corresponding to €3.5 billion, according to Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European commissioner for the environment, oceans and fisheries, in an interview with Kathimerini.

The island nation of Palau made history this week when it became the first country to ratify last year's historic United Nations treaty for the protection of the Earth's oceans.

The so-called High Seas Treaty was adopted by U.N. member states in June, after more than 15 years of discussions.

The island nation of Samoa has declared its waters a  shark sanctuary, joining a string of other Pacific countries in protecting the marine  predators.