(Bloomberg) – Greece will establish two national marine parks in an attempt to protect nature in the ocean, a movement that could possibly push ties with neighboring Turkey.
The parks will be located in the Ionian Sea and in the southern cyclades, an island group in the Aegean Sea, the West and east of the mainland respectively. The promise of the Greek government to create a Marien Park in the Aegean Sea, pulled pushback from Turkey last year. The two countries have traditionally been at odds about sea boundaries and economic rights in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
“These parks will be one of the largest protected marine areas in the entire Mediterranean Sea,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a statement on Monday. They will enable the country to achieve its objective to protect 30% of its territorial waters by 2030 “, prior to schedule, the prime minister added.
The creation of the two marine parks is intended to maintain ecosystems, to restore the balance and to set a new standard for marine conservation, said Mitsotakis.
“One-sided actions should be avoided in the attached or semi-closed seas such as the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey in a statement, adding that Ankara would announce its own projects “aimed at protecting the environment in marine areas” in the coming days.
The area in the Aegean Sea -Gastheren Endangered Nature Plants and Species and will cover nearly 9,500 square kilometers. The park in the Ionian Sea will extend more than 18,000 square kilometers and will include locations used by endangered animals such as certain sea turtles.
“They will be enormous shrines for life among the waves,” said Mitsotakis, adding that “the most importantly, within these marine zones, the enormously harmful practice of soil trawling will be banned.”
(Adds Turkish statement in the fifth paragraph.)
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