A group of small private and non-profit field schools devoted to increasing ecological awareness of the marine environment and to studying the unique geology, archaeology and history of the Aegean Sea
Octopus Sea Trips runs sea discovery programs for children, young people, families and schools.
Aegean Diving College caters for novice and advanced divers with a keen interest in marine ecology, underwater archaeology, wreck diving, geological cave diving and underwater photography.
The Aegean Institute is a not-for-profit organization that offers courses in underwater archaeology, marine biology and ecology for college/university students and interested individuals as well as specialist groups with an interest in these subjects. They offer both programs for non-divers, amateur, and professional divers who wish to participate in underwater scientific experiments and monitoring in the Aegean Sea. Non-diving visitors can also participate through real-time audio/video transmission to topside monitors on board the marine vessel. The Aegean Institute offers a variety of diving courses with lessons for children and adults ranging from basic snorkelling to beginners and advance scuba diving. Visitors have a chance to scuba dive in the confined water of the beachfront and into deeper water where they are taken to the nearby islet by a short dive boat trip. PADI open-water diving certification is also offered as well as wreck diving, cave diving, and marine biology and ecology diving courses, where participants can join marine environmental monitoring projects under way in the Aegean Sea. A full range of audio-visual aids is provided, such as slides, videos, and a broad reference library. The Aegean Institute makes diving fun, easy and most of all, educational.
The Aegean Center for Marine Environmental Education (ACMEE) is involved in coordinating events to sensitize locals and visitors regarding the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems in the Aegean. ACMEE is the leading proposer of a development project for the establishment and management of a natural and cultural heritage network of marine and coastal areas around Paros and Antiparos.
For the past nine years the institute have been actively involved in running a series of unique hands-on marine environmental education programs for schools on many islands of the Aegean Sea under the Greek Government programs “O Mikros Naftilos” and “O Naftilos taxidhevi”, sponsored by the Paedagogical Institute and the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and National Heritage (“Elliniki Etairia”).
They have also been running Marine Environmental Education Programs (“A†Level) on Paros, for English and German schools visiting them from Athens.
For the past few years they have had a number of universities from the US create special study abroad programs involving the institute’s activities and awarding academic credits.
ERT Satellite, Global TV, and National NET TV have repeatedly screened a half-hour documentary devoted to the institute’s activities, in the series “Aighaio, nyn kai aei” (Aegaeum, nunc et semper). The name of the episode is”Vythos, paralliloi kosmoi”. In 2007, another two national and satellite TV programs were devoted broadcasting the institute’s work (Focus, on National NET & ERT Satellite.) In the past 9 years, a few German TV channels have also produced documentaries about the institute’s activities in Greece and specifically Paros: ARD, ZDF, ARTE, and Spiegel TV (on the Battle of Lepanto.)
In 1976 the Aegean Institute worked on the Calypso with the Cousteau team and dived very often with Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself. One year before that they were in charge of diving operations on a National Geographic Expedition and personally discovered the site of the Bronze Age wreck of Dokos, the oldest wreck known to date. In 1998 they discovered the wreck of the Ottoman Armada Fleet Flagship of Kara Ali that Constantine Kanaris, the Greek revolution hero had blown up, off the island of Hiosm, in 1822. In 2003, they collaborated with the University of Trieste, Italy, on the European Program Socrates MARE E VITA for the production of a teaching CD-ROM for schools, (Il Mare Vive) regarding the commonest Mediterranean Sea species of algae.
The Sunday Times of London, in the 30th of January 2006 issue, ran an article about the Aegean Institute and so did the Greek newspaper Kathimerini of Sunday, 27th of February 2005.
All program themes and activities that the Aegean Institute offer always prove to be a moving experience remembered for life, for anybody with a passion for marine ecology, biology, geology, underwater archaeology, Greece and the Aegean Sea.