Seals and shipwrecks: taste the beauty of the North Aegean

I tiptoe along the dune-lined path, bare feet clawed by shards of bone-white seashells as the sun rises above the waves of the Aegean Sea. Ahead of me, a Mediterranean monk seal is lounging on one of the deckchairs at Marpunta, a secluded resort on the windswept southern tip of Alonissos. I watch him scratch his stomach and yawn showing sharp teeth, then sneak off for breakfast.

On crispy, fried pastries from fouskakia< /em> and amigdalota biscuits stuffed with almonds, waitress Eleni tells me that these seals (Monachus monachus) often come to sunbathe on the hotel's pebble beach. "It's an endangered species - there are less than 700 left in the Mediterranean and most of them are here near Alonissos, so you could say we're lucky."

< p class="dcr-3jlghf "> I had arrived here - on part of the Sporades archipelago off the east coast of Greece, which also includes Mamma Mia! Skopelos Island - after an hour boat ride from Skiathos, to explore what National Geographic ranked in 2020 as one of the most sustainable destinations in the world. This distinction is due not only to a large-scale campaign to eliminate plastic from the island, but also to the carefully patrolled 2,260 km2 national marine park - created to protect seals and other endangered wildlife in 1992. , it is the largest in Europe. .