Thracian Sea

Hundreds of tourists, including Bulgarians, have been blocked at the port of Alexandroupoli and the island of Samothrace due to damage in the only ferry that connects the island to the port city, BNR reported.

"Contact the port authorities if you have an island vacation booking," the ferry company advised.

An Airbus A330 will be sunk in the Saros Bay (or Gulf of Saros) in the northern Aegean Sea on June 14 to serve as a reef and attract diving tourists.

Greece's coast guard launched a search and rescue operation on Thursday to find a boat with migrants stranded in the sea area between the northern Aegean Sea island of Samothrace (or Samothraki) and the town of Alexandroupoli.

Ferryboats remained docked in ports around Greece on Friday, cutting off connections between the islands and the mainland, as a storm dubbed Penelope swept across the country, bringing downpours and gale-force winds.

There were no ferry services from the ports of Piraeus, Rafina or Lavrio.

Several ferry services were disrupted on Thursday due to gale-force winds up to 10 on the Beaufort scale blowing in the Aegean Sea, the Shipping Ministry said.

All planned services from Rafina port to the Cyclades have been suspended, while the "Adamandios Korais" ferry scheduled to sail to the western Cyclades will remain docked.

A replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris, will be erected on the namesake northern Aegean island this summer.

According to the deputy regional governor of Evros, Dimitris Petrovic, the marble replica was made by three sculptors in a workshop in the northern Greek town of Drama.

The Meteor, a research ship conducting research on behalf of the University of Heidelberg in Germany in the sea between Samothrace and Limnos in the eastern Aegean, was harassed on Friday by Turkish coast guard officers who warned the captain to leave, saying the vessel was in Turkish waters.

An application filed by a mining company to search for gold and silver mines in the Aegean resort island of Gökçeada in the northwestern Çanakkale province has been withdrawn after environmental concerns, according to a statement released by the Environment and Urbanization Ministry’s Provincial Directorate.

The Aegean resort island of Gökçeada is on the verge of environmental damage from plans to construct a gold mine, prompting criticism from authorities and residents of the island.

Waves pound Faliro Bay in southern Athens on Friday. Powerful southerly winds of up to 8 and 9 Beaufort disrupted shipping schedules. The Aegean-bound Dionysis Solomos passenger ferry remained docked in Piraeus port yesterday, as were hydrofoils serving the Saronic Gulf.