The organisation - ARCHIPELAGOS

The organisation - ARCHIPELAGOS 

Archipelagos is an NGO, started by Theodori and Anastacia Milou in the island of Athens 

Later on, bases moved to Lipsi Island, Fourni , Athens and Samos.

What are the main goals and aims ?

Anastacia an Theodori are marine ecologists, they understand that the marine environment should be protected . There are several environmental troubles in Greece that stated that  ;

              -Overfishing

              -Plastic overconsumtion

              - Illegal spearfishing an hunting

are getting way out of hand !

Young scientists, from all over the world, are invited to strongly improve the situation and investigate on some serious topics. All of us have been working under different conditions, ' Erasmus', 'Erasmus Mundus', 'Leonardo Da Vinci' and many more !

They are divided into 6 teams;

TERRESTRIAL RESEARCH

MARINE CONSERVATION

MARINE MAMMALS

MICROPLASTICS

MEDIA

GIS

I worked only in the marine conservation team.

For every scientist leaving we ha the tradition to make a starts picture !

The Work - GARDENING

The Work - GARDENING

In Samos Island, conditions stay fine troughout all the year for planting and harvesting onions, beetroot, lettuce, corn, ... and many more crops. We planted all of this in the backyard or Archipelagos ... and with the help of brave volunteers it became a place of heaven.

 Result after many days !

First step consisted of preplanting in small racks, as visualised below. On the right side U can see this small preplanting ...

Then we made different steps; 

we worked in the land with a plough to open the soil step by step. Second of all we planted the cabbage, brocolli and other crops in the land.

Loads of patience ...

The WORK Marine Mammal team

The work -  Marine mammal team

Monk seal ' Argiro'
The mediterrenean monk seal, a strongly protected animal with extinguishment threatened, is often encountered  in nearby beaches. We called the individual ' ARGIRO', a beautiful but dangerous animal, lazy on the beach but hunting like a SHARK in the water ...

Keeping tourists in safe istance was one of our goals ...

Unfortunately , we found sometimes also some DEAD seals on the shore.

Dolphin Watching

Another activity was the dolphin watching. After every spotting of the dolphins, the characteristic behaviours, relations amongst eachother and many more wee written down. Sometimes they were swimming, sometimes jumping, ...

The work -The terrestrial team

The terrestrial team

They made work about chameleons an jackhals. It was hard to belief but after my 4th survey I manage to see a chameleon in the shrubberies .. awesome ! Chameleons are likely more to be seen in the dark then in the daylight;

This animals adapt colour slightly to environment, they are camouflage animals.

Have you ever heard a jackhals ? This night-animals howl for hours an hours ...
The terrestrial team was experienced in placing cameras ... and trying to analyse the results day after day  !

Another animal of interest was the pygmy owl.Because of vulnerability of the found indiviual we decided to grow it up and release it after being independent !

The work - Movie Assistance

Movie - Sustainble behaviour in a Greek Island

One movie will explain more then a 1000 words...  I'm the diving boy !

The work - FISH4LIFE

The work - FISH4LIFE

Many restaurants served illegal fish !

Think about consuming fish! Think about our planet !

This is about an application I helped to construct for sustainble fishing. All present species are rated with a coour code: GREEN  YELLOW or RED- Sustainable for consumption, consume moderately or unsustainble.

Also different symbols have different meanings.

The Work - FISH IDENTIFICATION

The project - Fish Identification

 The main task was fish identification. It's based on identification dives or snorkeling.

 Permanent transects were built to identify always in the same spot the fish species. Abut 27 clusters of species were written on the counting slate, where about 97 species are present in SAMOS.

And a movie ...

 Here are some examples of species we can encounter !  There are about 97 species in the littoral of Samos...

Belone belone

Mullus surmuletus

Siganus rivulatus

Serranus hepatus