Greenpeace urged Greece again Wednesday to scrap deep-sea oil and gas exploration over endangered sea life, warning of "unbearable" consequences to them.
Greenpeace Greece official Kostis Grimanis said the project should be terminated before "it starts to wreck the Mediterranean."
Grimanis said the project means "exposing endangered species and crucial ecosystems to unbearable noise and pollution from seismic blasts and deep-sea drilling operations."
"And for what? To keep burning oil and gas, one of the dirtiest and most expensive energy sources, when the climate crisis demands we urgently walk away from them."
The environmental group recently published new research on sea mammal populations in areas of the Hellenic Trench, including parts that would be affected by the exploration.
The research, which entailed a three-week summer project in cooperation with the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute in Athens, found 35 endangered sperm whales and dozens of dolphins, some threatened, in depths of up to 13,800 feet.
Sonic blasts used in undersea prospecting would put the whales and dolphins, which are sound-sensitive cetaceans, at risk, Greenpeace said. Greek officials argued they would follow strict environmental safeguards.
Greece approved exploration rights in 2019 for two blocks of seabed south and southwest of the island of Crete to energy companies TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil with Greece's Hellenic Petroleum.
Environmentalists had also protested the decision then, noting the potential risk of spills that could occur from deep-water drilling. The exploration has not begun yet, and it's unknown when it will. However, it must start in the winter, so it would less affect cetacean breeding periods, according to a concession.
The Hellenic Trench includes the Mediterranean's deepest waters, at 17,300 feet and is a vital habitat for the sea's few hundred sperm whales, and for other cetaceans already threatened by fishing, collisions with ships and plastic pollution.
These mammals are particularly sensitive to the underwater noise produced by seismic surveys for fossil fuels, in which sound waves are bounced off the seabed to locate potential deposits. Sonar used by warships has been shown to have deadly effects on whales, and experts say seismic surveys can do the same.
Greece is hoping to raise revenues and achieve greater energy security through offshore oil and gas, and the issue of undersea exploitation rights has further poisoned relations with neighboring Turkey which claims large parts of the Eastern Mediterranean as its own.
Nevertheless, a Greenpeace statement Wednesday urged Athens to "immediately" cancel "all fossil fuel plans."
"Any new investment in the falsely advertised 'good' fossil gas will in a few years become a stranded asset with dire consequences for the economy…and the country's natural resources," it said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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