Saronic Gulf

The current government has a nasty habit of being far to blase when it comes to urgent issues. We see it in matters related to the economy, with ministers wasting time when large investments need to be approved, while some others appear completely indifferent. Their attitude appears to be the same when it comes to emergency situations, during times when the state needs to act quickly.

The environmental disaster caused by an oil spill that reached the shores of Athens this week was an accident waiting to happen, according to maritime experts. 

The Agia Zoni II tanker sunk in the Saronic Gulf near the island of Salamina on Sunday and experts have slammed relevant authorities tasked with supervision of the ship's seaworthiness.

The Agia Zoni II, which sank in the Saronic Gulf of Sunday and caused an oil spill that experts fear is turning into a serious ecological disaster, was not certified for seaworthiness, the Hellenic Register of Shipping announced on Thursday.

The Mayor of the island of Salamis, Isidora Nana Papatahnasiou told Proto Thema that the leakage of petrol from a tanker that sank on Sunday in the Saronic Gulf was an ecological catastrophe. Tanker “Agia Zona II” had sailed from the Aspropyrgos refineries with 2,200 metric tons of fuel oil and 370 metric tons of marine gas oil.

An effort was under way on Sunday to contain any possible spillage from an oil tanker that went down off the coast of Atalanti in the Saronic Gulf on Saturday night.

Greece keeps breaking new records in tourist arrivals, yet there are a number of extremely important and persistent problems that it should be dealing with, especially when it comes to key infrastructure issues.

The three ports serving the Greek capital - Piraeus, Rafina and Lavrio - saw a continued increase in traffic on Monday as holidaymakers started returning to Athens, authorities said.

More than 2,300 hectares of land was scorched on the island of Kythira this summer, according to FireHub, a real-time fire monitoring service provided by the National Observatory of Athens's Natural Disaster Relief Center.

A firefighter douses a burnt-out firetruck as another stands by, following a wildfire that broke out in Lagonissi, east of Athens, Thursday. The fire burned one house and injured four firefighters.

Staff from the Greek Wildlife Hospital on the Saronic island of Aegina release a pelican into the wild at Kerkini Lake in northern Greece, in this photo released Monday.

A rosy pelican and two Dalmatian pelicans - both of which are endangered species - were returned to their natural habitat after receiving treatment for injuries and being tagged with a tracking device.